After the 2024 college baseball season ended with an entirely SEC finale in Omaha, Nebraska, the preseason forecast for 2025 has a familiar look with College World Series champion Tennessee and runner-up Texas A&M.
But the Aggies are the pick in more ways than one, according to the USA TODAY Sports Network’s 2025 preseason All-SEC team. Texas A&M had a conference-best four players selected to the preseason team, received three individual honors and were voted to finish first in the SEC by the beat writers who cover the league for the USA TODAY Sports Network.
Texas A&M outfielder Jace Laviolette was the lone unanimous selection to the All-SEC preseason team. Only one player fell just a vote shy of unanimous selection — Aggies pitcher Ryan Prager.
In all, nine of the SEC’s 16 members had players selected to the all-conference team. Tennessee was the only other program to have multiple picks, with two. Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas each had one player chosen.
Seven schools — Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt — did not have a player named to the team, though five of those schools had a player receive votes.
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Texas A&M also ran away with first-place votes in the panel’s predicted order of finish, with nine. Tennessee and LSU were the only other programs to get a first-place vote.
Texas A&M, Tennessee and LSU are ranked nationally in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. The Aggies, Vols and Tigers lead the country at No. 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Arkansas (No. 5), Georgia (No. 9), Florida (No. 10), Texas (No. 13), Vanderbilt (No. 18), Mississippi State (No. 19), Kentucky (No. 24) and Oklahoma (No. 25) were also ranked. Alabama, Auburn and Ole Miss also each received votes.
The All-SEC team, individual awards and predicted order of finish were selected by a panel of 11 writers who cover the league: Adam Cole (Montgomery Advertiser), Anthony Catalina (Austin American-Statesman), Aria Gerson (The Tennessean), Colton Sulley (The Oklahoman), Corey Diaz (The Daily Advertiser), Danny Davis (Austin American-Statesman), Jackson Fuller (Southwest Times Record), Mike Wilson (Knoxville News Sentinel), Noah Ram (Gainesville Sun), Sam Hutches (The Clarion-Ledger), and Sam Sklar (The Clarion-Ledger).
2025 preseason All-SEC baseball team
- Catcher: Ike Irish, Auburn
- 1B: Jared Jones, LSU
- 2B: Cade Kurland, Florida
- SS: Dean Curley, Tennessee
- 3B: Gavin Grahovac, Texas A&M
- OF: *Jace Laviolette, Texas A&M; Max Belyeu, Texas; Ethan Petry, South Carolina
- DH/Utility: Hayden Schott, Texas A&M
- SP: Ryan Prager, Texas A&M; Gabe Gaeckle, Arkansas; Kyson Witherspoon, Oklahoma
- RP: Nate Snead, Tennessee
*Unanimous selection
2025 preseason SEC individual awards
- Coach of the Year: Michael Early, Texas A&M
- Player of the Year: Jace Laviolette, Texas A&M
- Pitcher of the Year: Ryan Prager, Texas A&M
- Freshman of the Year: Derek Curiel, LSU
- Newcomer of the Year: Blake Cyr, Florida
PRESEASON POLLS:See the full preseason baseball USA TODAY Coaches Poll here
Predicted order of finish for SEC’s 2025 baseball season
(First-place votes in parenthesis)
- Texas A&M (9)
- Tennessee (1)
- LSU (1)
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Vanderbilt
- Georgia
- Texas
- Mississippi State
- Oklahoma
- Kentucky
- Auburn
- Alabama
- South Carolina
- Ole Miss
- Missouri
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email atacole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter,@colereporter.
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