Tennessee #1, Kentucky #5 in new AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll

The top team in the land still resides in the SEC.

The Tennessee Volunteers remained a consensus #1 in the AP Top 25 and USA TODAY Coaches Poll this week. The Vols kept their winning ways up this past week, collecting two wins against the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Texas A&M Aggies. Those were their 15th and 16th consecutive victories, as they haven’t fallen in defeat since all the way back on November 23.

New to the Top 5 are the Kentucky Wildcats. Kentucky kept it rolling this past week, chucking up victories over the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Florida Gators. John Calipari has seen his team blossom up to a 7-1 record in conference play and they’ve still only lost one game since December 15, their conference opener against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The LSU Tigers were fixtures in both polls this week. The Tigers were handed their first loss since December 12 by the Arkansas Razorbacks, but did not drop out of the polls. They sit 21st in the AP Top 25 this week and 22nd in the Coaches Poll. Meanwhile, although they aren’t in the AP Top 25, the Mississippi State Bulldogs remain in the Coaches Poll, as they sit one spot above LSU at 21st. State received 133 votes in the AP Poll, which put them two votes behind the Washington Huskies and nine votes behind the 25th-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats.

The Auburn Tigers received 128 votes in the AP Top 25, missing out on the poll by 14 votes. Auburn also received 50 votes in the Coaches Poll, falling 26 points behind the 25th-ranked Buffalo Bulls. The Ole Miss Rebels, meanwhile, received seven votes in the Coaches Poll.