The Auburn Tigers sit just over five weeks out from their Week 1 clash against Baylor in Atlanta, Georgia, meaning it’s that time of the year when numerous preseason polls are released.
The SEC Preseason Media Poll was announced on Friday, which is typically voted on by members of the media attending SEC Media Days and released after the week concluded, and Auburn is officially projected to finish No. 12 in the league.
The Tigers received 936 total points, and they were picked to finish above Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Arkansas. The media predicted Georgia to win the SEC for the third consecutive season with 88 votes, followed by Texas (57), Ole Miss (6) and Texas A&M (5).
For the sake of comparison, Auburn placed No. 11 in the 2025 SEC Preseason Media Poll a season ago and managed to finish No. 13 with a 1-7 record. In fact, last year’s preseason pick to finish No. 12 was Missouri, which went on to place No. 8 in the league.
The Tigers are set for another tough schedule, as they will face four of the top six and six of the top nine teams in the poll, with LSU at No. 5, Alabama at No. 6, Tennessee at No. 8 and Florida at No. 9.
The SEC also released the Preseason All-SEC Team ahead of the 2026 campaign, and it featured three Tigers: linebacker Xavier Atkins, defensive back Champ Anthony and kicker Alex McPherson.
Atkins was the only Auburn player named to the first-team, a reasonable expectation after earning first-team All-SEC and second-team All-American honors following his first season on the Plains in 2025.
The former LSU transfer emerged as one of the nation’s top linebackers last year, leading the Tigers with 84 tackles, 17.0 tackles for loss and nine sacks. His 17 tackles for loss led the SEC and marked the third-most in a single season in program history.
McPherson was elected to the third-team, as he looks to post his best season yet in the orange and blue this year. McPherson boasted a perfect stat line in 2023, going 13-of-13 on field goals and 40-of-40 on extra points before an illness sidelined him for the vast majority of the 2024 campaign.
However, he bounced back in 2025, when he went 20-of-23 on field goal attempts and 35-of-35 on extra points. McPherson enters the upcoming season with the highest field goal percentage in Auburn history (89.9), and looks to advance that even further at full strength in 2026.
The third-team also featured Anthony, who, similar to McPherson’s absence, has missed lengthy amounts of time due to injury. He has faced several leg injuries over the last two seasons, but he definitely makes his presence known in Auburn’s secondary when healthy.
Despite the injury, Anthony served as a team captain in 2025 and made 13 tackles in the seven games in which he played. He will certainly play a huge veteran role in the Tigers’ defensive backfield this season, especially in a room that is loaded with young talent.
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Gunner Norene, junior in journalism, has been with The Auburn Plainsman since Fall 2024. Norene previously served as a Sports Writer. He is currently serving as the Sports Editor.
