KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team is No. 12 in the nation in the final polls of the 2025-26 season.
Tennessee (25-12, 11-7 SEC) jumped 11 spots in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and 13 places in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, as released Tuesday afternoon.
The Volunteers’ leap comes after reaching the Elite Eight for the third year in a row. Seeded sixth, Tennessee defeated No. 11-seeded Miami (OH), 78-56, in the Round of 64, followed that with a 79-72 win over third-seeded Virginia and then a 76-62 triumph versus second-seeded Iowa State. It then fell to top-seeded Michigan, the eventual national champion, in the Midwest Regional Final.
The No. 12 position in the AP Poll is the eighth-best in program history, with five of those eight marks coming in the last eight seasons (2018-2026) under the direction of head coach Rick Barnes. The Volunteers now own 13 all-time AP top-15 finishes, six of which are in the past nine years (2017-26) under Barnes.
In addition, this is the fifth consecutive year Tennessee has capped the year with a top-20 spot in the AP Poll, with this the fourth top-12 position during that span. The Volunteers finished a program-best fifth in each of 2024-25, 2023-24 and 2021-22, as well as No. 20 in 2022-23.
The No. 12 spot is the best of the year for Tennessee in both polls, eclipsing the No. 13 nod it received Dec. 1 from each outlet.
This is the 110th time in the last 117 poll releases the Volunteers are in the AP top 25, a stretch that extends back to the 2020-21 preseason poll and includes six full campaigns. Tennessee has claimed an AP top-15 position in 75 of those weeks.
Barnes has now led Tennessee to 150 total AP top-25 rankings across his 11-year tenure, all in the last nine seasons. That includes 76 weeks in the top 10, 38 in the top five and nine at No. 1 nationally.
The Volunteers totaled 756 points in the AP Poll, an increase of 644 from its March 16 total before the NCAA Tournament. They racked up 390 points in the Coaches Poll, a 314-point improvement from the March 15 release.
Tennessee is second-highest-ranked of six SEC teams in the year-end top 25 of both polls, joining ninth-ranked Florida, No. 13 Arkansas, No. 16 Alabama, No. 19/17 Vanderbilt and No. 22/24 Texas. Additionally, Kentucky received votes from both outlets, while Texas A&M and Auburn did so in the AP Poll.
Additionally, Tennessee ended the year No. 11 in ESPN BPI, No. 12 on BartTorvik.com, No. 14 on KenPom.com, No. 14 on Haslametrics.com, No. 15 on EvanMiya.com and No. 18 in ESPN SOR. The KenPom ranking marked the program’s fifth consecutive top-15 finish there.
Along with making the Elite Eight for the third season in a row, Tennessee notched a fourth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance and a fifth straight 25-win campaign. It also finished top-four in the SEC for the sixth time in a row and amassed a 4-1 record versus AP top-11 foes.
