New Faces and New Places: Southern Show Choir Rankings (2/13/26)

By Tony Holeman, Southern contributor

Well, this is certainly an interesting week for the Southern show choir rankings to debut for the 2026 season. With that being said, it has to be done one way or another, so let the games begin!

In a departure from other early-season HomeRoom rankings, only groups that have competed so far were considered for the rankings, meaning programs like Clinton, Oak Mountain, Petal, Briarwood and others were not considered. In the spirit of recognizing all the South's best choirs, 4A/3A/X-Large/Large, Single Gender, 2A/Middle Mixed, and 1A/Small Mixed divisions are all ranked. Large/Extra-Large Mixed (4A/3A)

1)     Brandon "Brio" (5 first-place votes)

2)     West Jones "Imagination"

3)     Homewood "The Network"

4)     Northeast Jones "Gold Horizons"

5)     Spain Park "Rhapsody In Blue"

6)     Grenada “Visions”

7)     Madison Central "Reveille"

8)     Auburn “Varsity Singers”

9)     Northwest Rankin “The Ambassadors”

10)   Hoover "Paradigm"

Single-Gender

1) Tupelo “Synergy” (5 first-place votes)

2) Homewood “Nexus”

3) Brandon “Bellas”

4) Auburn "Elan"

5) Biloxi "Sound Sirens"

6) Northwest Rankin “The Allure”

7) Tift County “Ladies Choice”

8) Enterprise "Esprit"

9) Auburn "Men at Work"

10) Purvis "Pizazz"

Receiving Votes: Biloxi "Sound Sailors", Pearl River Central "Illumination"

Middle Mixed (2A)

1) Vestavia Hills "Singers" (2 first-place votes)

2) South Jones "Company" (2 first-place votes)

3) Homewood "Continuum" (1 first-place vote)

4) Tift County "8th Street Singing Company"

5) Enterprise "Encores"

Receiving Votes: Jackson Prep "Reveillon" Small Mixed (1A)

1) West Marion "New Era" (1 first-place vote)

2) Oxford "Sound" (4 first-place votes)

3) Pass Christian "Luminary"

4) Rome "Grand Finale"

5) Clinton Christian "Extreme"

Receiving Votes: Chelsea "Out of the Blue"

News and Notes 

Homewood in Third?

The results of the Oak Mountain King of the Mountain Invitational continue to have rippling effects, as Homewood lands in third in the current Southern show choir rankings. While the transitive property of show choir would've had Northeast Jones ahead of Homewood due to their split with West Jones, the results of the panel's ballot landed NEJ slightly behind in fourth. Next week's introduction of the majority of other Southern groups should fully flesh out the 4A/3A divisional rankings.

Middle Division Mayhem

This division seems to be anyone's guess this season, as although South Jones is undefeated to start the year, they only place as second in the initial divisional rankings behind Vestavia Hills. Given Vestavia Hills' close finishes with Jasper and Homewood (and losses to Tift County and Enterprise), Singers leading the pack shows how erratic this division seems to be.

1A Reigns Constant

The 1A division remains constant with both results from this year and rankings from the last post-season batch, with West Marion in 1st, Oxford in 2nd, and Pass Christian in 3rd. Panelists clearly held strong opinions about the top two groups, with West Marion prevailing despite only garnering one first-place vote. While there doesn't seem to be a West Marion versus Oxford or Pass Christian versus Oxford matchup like there was last year, where West Marion (and Wayne County) beat Oxford, there will be plenty of West Marion versus Pass Chrisitan matchups to truly settle the two.

Future Matchups

As we are still plenty early in the season, these rankings are certainly going to change.There will be so many debuting groups across so many divisions, with names such as Clinton, Petal, Oak Mountain, Petal Innovations, Oak Mountain Muses, Briarwood, and Pisgah, just to name a few.