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Kim Caldwell will already have eyes on her with Lady Vols out of the Preseason Top 25

Not an ideal start for Tennessee.
ByBraulio Perez
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Tennessee women's basketball coach Kim Caldwell speaks with media during the Big Orange Caravan held at the Riverdance Restaurant in Guild, Tenn., on April 28, 2026.
Tennessee women's basketball coach Kim Caldwell speaks with media during the Big Orange Caravan held at the Riverdance Restaurant in Guild, Tenn., on April 28, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The good news is that the Tennessee Lady Vols can only go up from here. The bad news is that with such high expectations for the program, whenever Tennessee is not ranked, it's going to be a problem for head coach Kim Caldwell. Unfortunately, that's exactly how the season is starting for her players.

On Tuesday, the AP released its preseason Top 25, and Tennessee is nowhere to be seen. While the Lady Vols picked up eight votes, they weren't even close enough to sneak into the rankings. This tells us that not too many people are high on the Vols heading into the new season, and after what we saw in Knoxville in 2025-26, it's easy to see why.

NCAA Women's Basketball preseason AP Top 25

  1. South Carolina (26)
  2. UConn (6)
  3. Southern Cal
  4. Duke
  5. Michigan
  6. Texas
  7. Louisville
  8. LSU
  9. Vanderbilt
  10. Iowa
  11. North Carolina
  12. UCLA
  13. Notre Dame
  14. Kentucky
  15. Washington
  16. TCU
  17. Maryland
  18. Minnesota
  19. Oklahoma State
  20. Ohio State
  21. Oklahoma
  22. Illinois
  23. Ole Miss
  24. West Virginia
  25. North Carolina

Kim Caldwell is facing a ton of pressure to get the Lady Vols back on track

Obviously, it's no surprise that South Carolina and UConn are the top two teams in the nation. However, what might hurt Tennessee fans is that there are seven SEC foes ranked, yet Tennessee isn't on the list. To make matters even worse, at this time last October, Tennessee was ranked No. 8 in the nation for the 2025-26 preseason AP Poll.

This just goes to show how much has changed in a year for the program. To pull no punches, last campaign was a complete and total disaster for Caldwell. The Vols lost their last six regular-season games, and that was followed up with a loss to Alabama in the second round of the SEC Tournament. Sorry, but that's never going to be good enough.

Then this offseason, there were some misses in the transfer portal, and then it felt like the last straw came in when 5-star forward Oliviyah Edwards decommitted, and then ended up signing to play for Dawn Staley at South Carolina. We can't blame Edwards for joining such a storied program like the Gamecocks, but come on, where SC is at now is where Tennessee has been so used to.

Instead of the Lady Vols continuing to battle for national titles and going on deep postseason runs, the struggles of late have been brutal to witness, with Caldwell, of course, being responsible for things at the top. There was a ton of pressure on Danny White to make a change, but he wasn't ready to give up on Caldwell, still confident she could bring Tennessee back to the glory days.

With a new-look roster, Caldwell is going to have a difficult task in getting everyone to gel together from the start. However, this AP Top 25 snub should serve as motivation in what's going to be a crucial year for the Lady Vols head coach, because if anything like last season is showcased once again, it will be time to have some incredibly difficult conversations once next April gets here.

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