Texas Baseball's path through the SEC Tournament
With last night’s sweep of Missouri, the Texas Longhorns fully secured sole possession of second place in the SEC baseball standings.
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The Longhorns finished 3.5 games back from a dominant Georgia squad, but a full game above rivals Texas A&M and 1.5 ahead of both Alabama and Florida. The Longhorns and Aggies missed a regular-season game due to rain, which is why they did not play a full 30 SEC games.
The next step on the checklist for these programs is the SEC tournament, beginning on Tuesday morning as Ole Miss takes on Missouri in the 9-16 game.
Here’s how the bracket looks:
The Longhorns are in the third portion of the bracket, set to face one of #15 South Carolina, #10 Tennessee or #7 Arkansas in Game 11 on Friday, May 22.
Were Texas to win, they’d face the winner of #3 Texas A&M versus any of #14 LSU, #11 Oklahoma or #6 Auburn. The next round would be the championship game.
Texas earning the No. 2 spot and the double bye assured the team extra rest heading into the tournament, putting them on a much more manageable schedule that starts with a game on Friday, when the majority of series begin throughout the year.
Texas has played against both South Carolina and Tennessee in 2026, but has yet to face Arkansas since the Razorbacks swept the Longhorns in Texas’ inaugural SEC season in 2025.
Texas took 2/3 from South Carolina in Columbia, but lost the series against Tennessee in the week before the Missouri sweep. Their only other series loss came against Texas A&M, who they may play if both teams win their first games.
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Though a team like Texas will never back away from the challenge of a conference tournament, there’s little at stake for the Longhorns. They’ve already secured a Top 8 National Seed given their standings in the SEC and No. 4 spot in RPI. If the conference tournaments did not exist, they would likely lock in the No. 4 spot overall in the Field of 64, as projected by On3.
Texas has little to no chance to jump UCLA and Georgia Tech in the top two seeds, but could use some breathing room from UNC and Auburn in the 5-6 spot. While an almost negligible advantage, there is a difference in the strength of opponents between teams in the 1-4 seeding and teams in the 5-8. Texas could play a top-25 team as the five seed, but would not go any stronger than the 29th-ranked team as the four seed.
Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle has already indicated that a primary goal of this tournament is to give players like Ruger Riojas some much-needed rest, but Texas still would like to see some of their secondary pitchers win them a game or two, as well as the bats to continue to stay hot.
No matter what, Texas has set itself up well for postseason success, locking down a Top 8 National Seed without any additional help required in the tournament. Any success in Hoover is just the cherry on top.
Texas’ first game is currently set for 3 P.M. on Friday, May 22, at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama.
