Texas baseball’s 2025 campaign was a modest success in head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s first year at the helm. The Longhorns finished with 44–14, their best record in 15 years, and won the Southeastern Conference regular season championship. However, the season ended suddenly in the Austin Regional against a rapidly improving UTSA.
Now entering year two under Schlossnagle, the Longhorns should have renewed expectations to defend their crown as conference champions and work toward a return to Omaha for the first time since 2022.
Those goals won’t come easy in a conference as challenging as the SEC. Perfect Game’s top 25 preseason rankings underscore the depth of the conference, with the SEC having six teams ranked in the top 10 of the poll, including the Longhorns, who check in at No. 8.
Of the other five SEC teams ranked inside the top 10, the Longhorns will take on three of those teams during the 2026 season. Here’s a look at those four SEC series likely to be filled with plenty of emotion:
No. 10 Auburn, March 20-22
The Longhorns’ first big test comes early in conference play in their second conference series of the season. Texas will travel to Alabama and take on the No. 10 Auburn Tigers. Texas hosted Auburn last season, when the then-ranked No. 8 Tigers came into Austin and got swept as the Longhorns outscored the Tigers 25-7 across the three games.
Texas A&M, April 10-12
While not a ranked matchup like the other three series are, the diamond edition of the Lone Star Showdown between the Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies needs no added hype.
Playing for the first time as conference foes since the Big 12 days, last season’s series delivered three nail-biting games. However, the Longhorns swept the series over the Aggies — each game was decided by just a single run.
This season marks the return of Jim Schlossnagle to College Station. The now Longhorn head coach spent three seasons with the Aggies, leading them to a runner-up finish in the 2024 College World Series before moving to Austin ahead of the 2025 season.
No. 6 Mississippi State, May 1-3
The Longhorns will host the No. 6 Mississippi State Bulldogs in early May, marking the only preseason-ranked conference matchup Texas will face at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The Bulldogs welcomed the Longhorns to the conference when Texas traveled to Starkville for its first-ever SEC series last season and left the Magnolia State with a dominant sweep.
No. 3 Tennessee, May 8-10
Texas’ toughest conference matchup comes on the road in Knoxville against the No. 3 Tennessee Volunteers. While the Longhorns didn’t square off against the Volunteers in the regular season, the two teams met in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, where Tennessee eliminated Texas in extra innings.
The Volunteers won their first-ever national championship two seasons ago at the 2024 College World Series against Schlossnagle’s Aggies. However, Tennessee enters the season amid significant changes following the departure of head coach Tony Vitello, who moved on to become the manager of the San Francisco Giants in the MLB.
