SEC basketball order of finish for 2024-25 season projected by USA TODAY Sports Network

Alabama basketball made program history last season by earning its first trip to the Final Four.

A poll of experts who cover the SEC for the USA TODAY Sports Network is pegging the Crimson Tide to carry that momentum into a new campaign, with Alabama a unanimous choice to win the league. If these predictions come to fruition, it would mark the third time in the last five seasons the Crimson Tide has won the SEC title.

Alabama's biggest competition, according to our experts, is in-state rival Auburn. The Tigers last won a regular-season SEC title in 2022 and have been a consistent competitor in the league since Bruce Pearl's arrival. But Auburn has failed to advance past the first weekend in each of the last three NCAA Tournaments.

Speaking of recent early exits, John Calipari is running a new program inside the league. Our panel predicts Calipari and Arkansas will finish fourth, one spot behind defending champion Tennessee.

Here is the predicted order of finish for the coming season by the USA TODAY Sports Network's panel of 14 experts:

1. Alabama (14 first-place votes)
2. Auburn
3. Tennessee
4. Arkansas
5. Texas A&M
6. Florida
7. Kentucky
8. Texas
9. Ole Miss
10. Mississippi State
11. South Carolina
12. Georgia
13. Missouri
14. Oklahoma
15. LSU
16. Vanderbilt

Poll participants: Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun; Ryan Black, Courier Journal; Anthony Catalina, Austin American-Statesman; Michael DiLullo, Daily Advertiser; Maxwell Donaldson, Gadsen Times; Jackson Fuller, Southwest Times Record; Sam Hutchens, Clarion Ledger; Thomas Jones, Austin American-Statesman; Lulu Kesin, Greenville News ; Callum McAndrew, Columbia Daily Tribune; Sam Sklar, Clarion Ledger; Emilee Smarr, Tuscaloosa News; Colton Sulley, The Oklahoman; Marc Weiszer, Athens Banner-Herald .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: SEC basketball order of finish for 2024-25 season projected by USA TODAY Sports Network