The USA South Athletic Conference's softball coaches have released their 2026 preseason poll. Head coaches do not vote for their own teams in the balloting.

Pfeiffer, the three-time defending USA South regular season and tournament champions, was placed atop the rankings thanks to receiving 81 total points and nine of the possible ten first place votes. The Falcons finished last season with an unblemished 18-0 regular season Conference record which was good for a fifth consecutive regular season crown. N.C. Wesleyan was second in the poll with 68 total points while Meredith rounded out the top-three with 64 points and the final first place vote.

Since the end of divisional preseason polls in USA South softball after the 2022 season, Pfeiffer has been picked first by the coaches each year and has come through with a title each spring. 

Pfeiffer has owned the top spot ever since the USA South discontinued divisional preseason polls after 2022, earning the coaches' number-one nod each year and backing it up with a championship every spring. Since the first Conference softball preseason poll in 2003, the team picked first has won the League title 11 out of 21 years but four consecutive. The only spot that has produced more champions than the preseason favorite is the number-five selection, earning the title five times.

The 2026 USA South Softball Tournament will once again be conducted exclusively on campus sites. The top-eight seeded teams will advance to postseason play which will begin with two, four-team, double-elimination tournaments on Thursday-Saturday, April 30-May 2. The winners of those two tournaments will face each other in a best-of-three championship series the following weekend, Friday-Saturday, May 8-9.