Don’t expect things to be as lively this weekend.

No. 4 Texas plays Sunday at No. 24 Alabama for its regular-season finale. The Longhorns and Crimson Tide will tip off at 11 a.m. CT, the earliest start time for a UT game this season. 

Less than a year ago, Texas beat Florida on the final day of the regular season. That 72-46 win March 2, 2025 at Moody Center secured Texas a share of the SEC championship and the Longhorns celebrated afterward with a trophy presentation and cupcakes for head coach Vic Schaefer’s 64th birthday. The vibes, however, were somewhat spoiled later that day when the Longhorns had to watch in agony a televised coin toss that gave SEC co-champion South Carolina the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

Since South Carolina (28-2, 14-1) will be the SEC’s outright champion this year, not as much will be on this line Sunday. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be some stakes. Texas has already locked down a double bye for the upcoming SEC Tournament, but its seed has not yet been finalized:

• If Texas (27-3, 12-3) beats Alabama (21-8, 7-8) and Vanderbilt (26-3, 12-3) beats Tennessee (16-11, 8-7), the Longhorns will be the No. 3 seed.

• If Texas wins and Vanderbilt loses, the Longhorns will be No. 2. If Texas loses and LSU (25-4, 11-4) beats Mississippi State (18-11, 5-10), the Longhorns being the No. 3 or No. 4 seed would be dependent on some other results from Sunday. 

Texas is also attempting to avoid a late-season letdown as it tries to earn a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. As of Saturday, ESPN, CBS Sports and NCAA.com each project Texas to be one of the four No. 1 seeds, but teams like Iowa, LSU, Michigan and Vanderbilt are lurking on the No. 2 line.

“We don’t want to let anybody make a decision in the big tournament if we stub our toe,” Schaefer said. “I just don’t want to give anybody a reason to reconsider where we are, what we’ve done, our body of work in the big picture. So we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. 

“Momentum is everything, right? You want to keep winning. You want to have momentum. We’re going to have a chance to win a championship next week, so you want to go into that opportunity playing well. And we’re going to have to play really well on Sunday, because coach (Kristy) Curry and her staff, they’re some of the best in the business. That team will be ready for us, so we’ve got to be ready for them.”