HOOVER, Ala. — Pull up a list of recent SEC champions, and three of the four teams seeded No. 9 through No. 12 at the 2026 SEC Tournament are on it. Tennessee won the NCAA national championship in 2024. Vanderbilt won the SEC Tournament in 2025 — Tim Corbin’s fourth as head coach. Ole Miss won the College World Series in 2022. None of them are in the top eight of this year’s bracket. All three will arrive in Hoover the most dangerous kind of opponent: high pedigree, low expectation, nothing to lose.
This is the third of four World Baseball Network previews of the 2026 SEC Baseball Tournament. The tournament runs May 19-24 at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, single-elimination, with first-round play opening Tuesday on the SEC Network and the championship game scheduled for Sunday, May 24 at 2 p.m. EDT on ABC. This piece covers the No. 9 through No. 12 seeds.
The bracket’s dangerous middle:
- Ole Miss (36-20, 15-15 SEC) — Mike Bianco, 26th season
- Tennessee (37-19, 15-15 SEC) — Josh Elander, 1st season
- Oklahoma (32-20, 14-16 SEC) — Skip Johnson, 2nd SEC season
- Vanderbilt (32-24, 14-16 SEC) — Tim Corbin, 23rd season
No. 9 Ole Miss Rebels (36-20, 15-15 SEC)
Head coach: Mike Bianco, 26th season
Bianco is in his 26th season at Ole Miss, and 2026 marks four years since the Rebels won the College World Series in 2022. The 2026 group is No. 15 in the D1Baseball Top 25, opens the tournament in the morning against No. 16 Missouri, and brings right-hander Cade Townsend — MLB Pipeline‘s No. 21 prospect — as the headliner. Right-hander Taylor Rabe is on the Top 150 at No. 119.
Players to watch:
- RHP Cade Townsend — 2nd-Team All-SEC (SP) · (Top 150: No. 21)
- RP Walker Hooks — 1st-Team All-SEC (RP)
- 1B Will Furniss — 2nd-Team All-SEC (1B)
- 3B Judd Utermark — 2nd-Team All-SEC (3B)
- P Hunter Elliott — All-SEC Defensive Team (P)
- RHP Taylor Rabe — (Top 150: No. 119)
Program resume: CWS Champion 2022. Six CWS appearances. SEC Tournament Champions 1977, 2006, 2018.
No. 10 Tennessee Volunteers (37-19, 15-15 SEC)
Head coach: Josh Elander, 1st season
The defending national champions enter Hoover as the No. 10 seed. Tennessee won the 2024 College World Series under Tony Vitello, who departed for the San Francisco Giants managerial job; Josh Elander, the program’s longtime hitting coach, is now in his first season at the helm. The Volunteers are No. 26 in the D1Baseball Top 25 — outside the top group, but with a 37-19 overall record and the kind of pitching depth that can change a single-elimination tournament.
Right-hander Tegan Kuhns is the headliner — MLB Pipeline’s No. 43 prospect. Third baseman Henry Ford (Top 150 No. 137) is on the Top 150 list as well.
Players to watch:
- RHP Tegan Kuhns — 2nd-Team All-SEC (SP) · (Top 150: No. 43)
- 3B Henry Ford — (Top 150: No. 137)
- LHP Cam Appenzeller — Freshman All-SEC
- C Trent Grindlinger — Freshman All-SEC
Program resume: CWS Champion 2024. CWS Runner-Up 1951. Seven CWS appearances (1951, 1995, 2001, 2005, 2021, 2023, 2024). SEC Tournament Champions 1993, 1994, 1995, 2022, 2024.
No. 11 Oklahoma Sooners (32-20, 14-16 SEC)
Head coach: Skip Johnson, 2nd SEC season
Oklahoma is one of the SEC’s two newest members — the Sooners and Texas both joined the league for the 2025 season — and arrives in Hoover with the highest concentration of Top 150 draft prospects of any team in this seed tier. Shortstop Jaxon Willits (No. 132), third baseman Camden Johnson (No. 128), right-hander LJ Mercurius (No. 127), and catcher/outfielder Brendan Brock (No. 96) all appear on MLB Pipeline’s board.
That’s four prospects on a roster that finished 14-16 in conference play. It’s the kind of profile that suggests Oklahoma’s ceiling is much higher than its seed — if the pitching shows up.
Players to watch:
- C/OF Brendan Brock — (Top 150: No. 96)
- RHP LJ Mercurius — (Top 150: No. 127)
- 3B Camden Johnson — (Top 150: No. 128)
- SS Jaxon Willits — (Top 150: No. 132)
- OF Jason Walk — All-SEC Defensive Team (OF)
Program resume: CWS Champion 1951, 1994. CWS Runner-Up 2022. 11 CWS appearances. Big 12 Tournament Champions 1997, 2013, 2022. Big 12 Regular Season Champion 2024 (final Big 12 season before joining the SEC).
No. 12 Vanderbilt Commodores (32-24, 14-16 SEC)
Head coach: Tim Corbin, 23rd season
The reigning SEC Tournament champions enter Hoover as the No. 12 seed. Vanderbilt won last year’s title with a 3-2 victory over Ole Miss in the championship game — Corbin’s fourth SEC Tournament title at Vandy, after the program’s 2014 and 2019 national championships. The 2026 group is 32-24 overall, 14-16 in conference, and unranked in the D1Baseball Top 25.
That’s a strange place for a program with the postseason resume Corbin has built. It’s also a profile any other team in this bracket will respect. Vanderbilt has been here before, low-seeded with the experience to do damage. Their first-round opponent: No. 13 Kentucky.
Players to watch:
- 2B Mike Mancini — 2nd-Team All-SEC (2B) · All-SEC Defensive Team (2B)
Program resume: CWS Champion 2014, 2019. CWS Runner-Up 2015. Five SEC Tournament titles, including 2025 (defending). Under Tim Corbin, the program has built one of the most consistent postseason runs in modern college baseball.
Bracket entry path — middle-low four seeds:
All four of these teams enter the tournament in the Tuesday first round:
