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Texas A&M Women's Basketball Left Out of Preseason Top 25 as SEC Rivals Dominate
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- Texas A&M Women's Basketball Left Out of Preseason Top 25 as SEC Rivals Dominate
(Butch Dill-Imagn Images)
Texas A&M women's basketball will begin the 2026-27 season with something to prove after being excluded from the Associated Press preseason Top 25 released Tuesday.
While seven Southeastern Conference programs earned national rankings, the Aggies received no votes in the preseason poll, underscoring the challenge facing a program attempting to climb back into the national conversation.
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The SEC's strength was evident throughout the rankings.
South Carolina claimed the nation's No. 1 position, Texas opened at No. 6, Vanderbilt checked in at No. 8 and LSU followed at No. 9.
Kentucky, Ole Miss and Oklahoma also secured places in the Top 25.
For Texas A&M, that collection of nationally recognized conference opponents creates both a challenge and an opportunity.
The Aggies were selected 11th in the SEC preseason media poll, putting them in the lower half of a conference loaded with established tournament contenders.
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That projection is hardly a ringing endorsement entering a season in which the program needs to demonstrate meaningful progress.
Still, preseason rankings don't determine what happens once games begin.
Texas A&M has an opportunity to develop a more competitive identity behind a roster featuring a combination of transfers, experienced contributors and young players.
Guard Kailyn Gilbert arrives from LSU, while Kaniya Boyd joins the program from Tennessee. Forward Miyah Verse brings SEC experience from Georgia, and senior Essence Cody adds an established interior presence after arriving from Alabama.
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How quickly those players establish chemistry could determine whether A&M outperforms expectations.
The Aggies must find consistent perimeter scoring, improve their defensive execution and establish enough rebounding strength to survive an SEC schedule featuring multiple nationally ranked opponents.
More importantly, Texas A&M needs to become competitive against the conference's upper-tier programs rather than allowing the gap between itself and the league's leaders to widen.
The SEC sent several programs into the preseason national rankings, but A&M wasn't among them.
That omission provides a clear measuring stick.
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The Aggies don't need to win a preseason popularity contest. They need to win enough games to make their absence from the rankings look like a mistake.
And that process begins when the regular season opens in November.
