Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports
By Chris Marler
College Football season ended on Monday. The transfer portal closed for SEC teams last Friday. Baseball season is still a few weeks away. It is basketball season in the SEC. Saturday is a huge day despite there not being a ranked matchup.
Weekly State of Conference
I brought this up last week when there were double digit teams ranked nearly every week of the season. That made for a ton of weekly ranked matchups every Saturday. This week there are none, and so far through three weeks there have only been three. There are also only five teams ranked in the current top 25 and only nine teams projected to make the NCAA tournament.
Bracketology 1/22:
– USC falls to the Last 4 In after losing at home last night
– VT jumps to 10 seed (1 of 3 ACC teams on the 10-line)
– Wisconsin (9 seed) at Penn State is only P4 game today
– On Friday night, Ohio State (11) travels to Michigan (1) pic.twitter.com/xJXs1udCcm— AA Analytics (@austin_ambler) January 22, 2026
Charles in Charge, not the NCAA
The biggest news of the week was Alabama center Charles Bediako being allowed to return to Alabama despite turning pro after the 2023 season. This has happened at multiple schools this season including Baylor who started the trend earlier in January. That doesn’t make it any less stupid.
Bediako left in 2023, has played in the NBA G-League for three different teams, and played as recently as last Saturday for the Motor City Cruise. He is currently trying to hit the reset button and finish this season with Alabama. Head coach Nate Oats said Bediako will play on Saturday against Tennessee after receiving a temporary restraining order against the NCAA to allow it.
It’s not technically against the rules. Alabama, again, isn’t the first team to do this. What a disaster college sports have become.
The Charles Bediako summary:
— Played at Alabama for 2 years
— Entered the 2023 NBA Draft
— Went undrafted
— Played in the G-League for 3 years
— Now is resuming his remaining 2 years of collegiate eligibility at AlabamaRidiculous that he’s allowed to return to CBB. 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/PiABErDVeS
— College Basketball Content (@CBBcontent) January 21, 2026
Game of the Week – Tennessee at Alabama
Two long time rivals meet in prime time at Coleman Coliseum. Tennessee has struggled with consistency this year, and has really struggled away from home going 0-3 in road games. They are always a very physical team that has given Alabama fits in past years. The Vols have also won four straight against Alabama. Tennessee isn’t currently ranked and just 12-6 on the season. One of those 12 wins was against top five Houston, proving they are still a dangerous team.
Alabama has led the country in scoring each of the last two years and are currently ranked second nationally. They have averaged over 90 points per game in each of those three years, but haven’t scored more than 76 points against Tennessee in eight games under Nate Oats.
Runner-Up – Auburn at Florida.
Who’s on upset alert? Georgia
Disclaimer: this pick is primarily because there aren’t a lot of great options for upsets this weekend, and we’ve already had way too many Alabama storylines in this piece.
Georgia heads to Austin to play an enigmatic Texas team that seemed like they were heading in the right direction a week ago, but have since lost two straight games. Texas does have two good wins on the road this season against Alabama and Vanderbilt. Georgia has been really good this season, even away from home, but without a ton of great options or value on an upset we’ll choose Texas to upset No. 21 Georgia.
Following Texas’ loss at Kentucky, Sean Miller dropped an early candidate for soundbite of the year:
“We have a virus called fouling… We will foul the living 💩 out of you… You describe the foul and the team that I’m coaching will commit it.” pic.twitter.com/pvzBAYV4iI
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) January 22, 2026
Lock of the Week – Missouri over Oklahoma
We are now 2-0 now in our locks of the week this season. This week’s game is Missouri over Oklahoma. Both teams are on losing streaks with Missouri losing two in a row and Oklahoma in the middle of five straight losses. Missouri is coming off a dramatic last second loss at home to Georgia by two points. They’ve won their 11 other games in Columbia and will host the Sooners Saturday. Expect a big win from Missouri against a reeling Oklahoma team.
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