Vanderbilt basketball will open the 2026-27 season carrying a place in the preseason AP Top 25, landing at No. 24 when the regular season begins against Bellarmine on Nov. 2.
The ranking arrived Monday morning, just ahead of Vanderbilt’s second exhibition game of the offseason, a meeting with UAB at Memorial Gymnasium at 6 p.m. CT. The Commodores already played once this fall, knocking off Virginia in an outdoor exhibition game in Charleston, South Carolina during the final weekend of September.
The preseason poll also showed how crowded the SEC sits at the top of the sport. Vanderbilt is one of seven league teams in the first AP Poll of the year, joining No.
1 Florida, No. 7 Texas, No.
8 Tennessee, No. 12 Arkansas, No.
20 Alabama and No. 23 Kentucky.
For Mark Byington, now entering his third season leading Vanderbilt, the ranking fits the rise the program has been chasing. The Commodores are coming off a 27-9 season in which they finished fourth in the SEC, made a run to the SEC Championship Game and earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
That postseason ended with a win over No. 12 seed McNeese and then a Round of 32 loss to No. 4 seed Nebraska in heartbreaking fashion.
This year’s group brings back one of its biggest pieces in point guard Tyler Tanner, who went through the NBA Draft process over the summer before choosing to return for his third season at Vanderbilt.
Byington also added a batch of new talent through the transfer portal, bringing in former Colorado center Bangot Dak, big man Berke Buyuktuncel, guards Ace Glass and T.O. Barrett and forward Sebastian Williams-Adams. The freshmen class includes Ant Brown Jr., Ethan Mgbako, Gabe Nesmith and Jackson Sheffield.
With so many fresh faces, Vanderbilt still has chemistry to build. But the talent on the roster has the Commodores positioned with a ceiling that looks higher than ever entering the season.
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Vanderbilt Has A Painful Stock Up Stock Down Debate After Arkansas
Vanderbilts search for answers keeps getting tougher, and Saturdays 31-21 loss to Arkansas only added another painful entry to the ledger. The Commodores have now dropped four straight and are still trying to get traction in SEC play, even though there were individual bright spots worth noting. Junior Sherrill continued to give the offense a reliable target, Bryan Longwell was active all over the field, and Sedrick Alexander chipped in as both a runner and receiver to keep Vanderbilt within striking distance.
Still, the game turned on the kind of mistake that can define a young offense. Freshman quarterback Jared Curtis had a uneven afternoon, and a late interception in the final minutes came at the worst possible time as Vanderbilt was trying to push for a tying score. It left the Commodores sorting through the familiar stock up, stock down debate again, with some encouraging performances on tape and a result that leaves plenty unresolved heading into the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Arizona Is Back In The National Title Conversation Early
The preseason AP Top 25 has arrived, and it gives Vanderbilt a little early-season validation after what has been a long wait. The Commodores are back in the conversation with a spot in the preseason rankings, joining a list led by Florida at No. 1 and packed with familiar powers like Duke, Illinois and UConn.
For Vanderbilt, the placement matters because it marks the programs first preseason Top 25 appearance since 2015, a small but meaningful sign that the Commodores are starting the year with national relevance rather than having to earn it from scratch. The poll also brings a few notable benchmarks elsewhere, from Kentucky closing in on its 1,000th AP poll appearance to Purdues run of 79 straight weeks coming to an end, but for Vanderbilt the bigger takeaway is simply getting back on the board before the season even starts. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Gets An Early Test As Tyler Tanner's New-Look Cast Debuts
Mondays exhibition against UAB gives Vanderbilt an early chance to see how a reshaped roster holds up before the games start to count. The matchup is one of three mens college basketball exhibitions scheduled for the day, along with Marquette at Green Bay and Saint Leo at South Florida, and it offers coaches a first real look at their teams in a live setting after months of offseason work.
For the Commodores, the focus is less on the score than on how the new-look group fits around Tyler Tanner and handles a step up in competition. Official athletic department schedules have locked in the date, and this kind of tune-up is exactly where lineups, rotations and late-offseason answers begin to take shape, even if the full picture wont be clear for a while. [Read more 🡒]