FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas released a 54-game baseball schedule Tuesday, one month before the Razorbacks are scheduled to open the season with games against Texas, Texas Tech and TCU in Arlington, Texas.
The schedule is two games short of the maximum number of 56 regular-season games allowed by the NCAA. Arkansas might add more games to its schedule, which was being adjusted as recently as Monday.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play their first game Feb. 19 against Texas at Globe Life Field, the second-year home of the MLB’s Texas Rangers. Arkansas is scheduled to play Texas Tech there on Feb. 20 and TCU on Feb. 21.
All three games are being played as part of the inaugural State Farm College Baseball Showdown — a six-team event that will also include Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The nine games at Globe Life Field that weekend will match a team from the SEC against a team from the Big 12, but no teams from the same conference will play one another in Arlington.
This is the first season since 2007 the Razorbacks are scheduled to open the season away from home. Arkansas is scheduled to open its 33-game home season Feb. 25 with a four-game series against Southeast Missouri State at Baum-Walker Stadium.
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The Razorbacks are scheduled to host Murray State for three games the following weekend (March 5-7) and close nonconference weekend play with a series at Louisiana Tech on March 12-14 — one of the first games scheduled for Tech’s renovated Love Field, which was heavily damaged by an April 2019 tornado and has not been played in since.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to open SEC play with a three-game series against Alabama beginning March 18. Arkansas’ other home SEC series are scheduled against Auburn (April 1-3), Texas A&M (April 16-18), Georgia (May 7-9) and Florida (May 20-22). The Auburn and Florida series are scheduled to start on Thursdays.
The three-game Florida series will be the Razorbacks’ final regular-season games. Arkansas has not concluded the regular season at home since 2011.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play at Mississippi State (March 26-28), Ole Miss (April 9-11), South Carolina (April 23-25), LSU (April 30-May 2) and Tennessee (May 14-16) in SEC play. The SEC opponents and playing sites are the same as they were for the 2020 season, which was suspended one day before conference play was scheduled to begin.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to play a record six games against in-state teams — two games against Arkansas-Little Rock (April 6-7) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (April 13-14), and a game apiece against Central Arkansas (March 30) and Arkansas State (May 11). All six games are scheduled to be played at Baum-Walker Stadium.
It is the third consecutive season Arkansas has scheduled UALR and UAPB, although last year’s games were not played. The Razorbacks lost to UALR and defeated UAPB two years ago.
The games against UCA and Arkansas State would be the first for the Razorbacks against those programs. Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek lifted a decades-old all-sports scheduling ban against UCA and Arkansas State last summer, and Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn had scheduled both teams within a matter of days.
Van Horn has been a proponent for playing against in-state competition, which led to the Razorbacks being able to schedule other schools from the UA System beginning in 2019.
“I think that playing each other will grow our game and help make it more popular,” Van Horn said of playing in-state teams last year. “I think playing the other schools is going to be great. Obviously, it’s going to be a battle playing those guys on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between conference series. But at the same time, it’s just good for everybody involved.
“I’m just appreciative that we get to do it now.”
The six in-state games are part of an 11-game midweek schedule for the Razorbacks at home. Arkansas is also scheduled to host Memphis twice (March 23-24) and host single midweek games against Oklahoma (March 16), Grambling (April 20) and Missouri State (April 27).
The Oklahoma game would be the Sooners’ first at Baum-Walker Stadium since 2009. The Razorbacks and Sooners had games rained out in Fayetteville in 2011 and 2013, but played an exhibition game there two years ago.
Arkansas officials expect to allow around 4,000 fans per game at home games this season, senior athletics director Rick Thorpe said last week, but a final attendance cap has not been determined.
Absent from the Razorbacks’ schedule this season is a game at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock. The Grambling game was originally contracted to be played there, but was moved to Fayetteville to limit travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
Arkansas hopes to resume playing at Dickey-Stephens Park annually in 2022. A scheduled game at the ballpark was canceled last year, snapping a streak of 10 consecutive seasons the Razorbacks had played there.
Arkansas has not played a game since a 10-9 victory over Grand Canyon on March 11 that improved its 2020 season record to 11-5. The season was suspended one day later, and ultimately canceled due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Scheduling this season was made more challenging due to covid-19 protocols that varied by conference. For instance, Arkansas was scheduled to host Nebraska for two games in March, but that series was canceled because the Big Ten announced its teams would only be permitted to play games against other Big Ten opponents.
Abilene Christian of the Southland Conference also backed out of a scheduled game at Arkansas this year. D1Baseball.com reported earlier this month the Southland would play a 40-game conference schedule, which would reduce its members' available number of nonconference games by 10 games apiece.
The interruption of the 2020 season led Arkansas and Michigan State to cancel a home-and-home series that was to begin last year in East Lansing, Mich., and conclude this year in Fayetteville. The series is not expected to be rescheduled.
“We just let that one go because we didn’t get to go up there (in 2020),” Van Horn said in September.
Cal State Northridge also had to back out of scheduling talks with Arkansas. The Matadors are coached by Dave Serrano, the former head coach at Cal State Fullerton and Tennessee.
“He just told me that their administration said, ‘Let’s not plan on going there this year,’” Van Horn said in September. “I was able to get Southeast Missouri State that weekend, who had somebody cancel on them that weekend.”
SEMO is coached by Andy Sawyers, who was a volunteer coach under Van Horn at Nebraska in 2000. Sawyers is one of five former Van Horn assistants who are head coaches on a team the Razorbacks are scheduled to play this year.
Other former Van Horn assistants on this year’s schedule are Rob Childress at Texas A&M, Tony Vitello at Tennessee, Chris Curry at UALR and Lane Burroughs at Louisiana Tech.
2021 Arkansas Baseball Schedule
Feb. 19: vs. Texas (in Arlington, Texas)
Feb. 20: vs. Texas Tech (in Arlington, Texas)
Feb. 21: vs. TCU (in Arlington, Texas)
Feb. 25: Southeast Missouri State
Feb. 26: Southeast Missouri State
Feb. 27: Southeast Missouri State
Feb. 28: Southeast Missouri State
March 5: Murray State
March 6: Murray State
March 7: Murray State
March 12: at Louisiana Tech
March 13: at Louisiana Tech
March 14: at Louisiana Tech
March 16: Oklahoma
March 19: Alabama
March 20: Alabama
March 21: Alabama
March 23: Memphis
March 24: Memphis
March 26: at Mississippi State
March 27: at Mississippi State
March 28: at Mississippi State
March 30: Central Arkansas
April 1: Auburn
April 2: Auburn
April 3: Auburn
April 6: Arkansas-Little Rock
April 7: Arkansas-Little Rock
April 9: at Ole Miss
April 10: at Ole Miss
April 11: at Ole Miss
April 13: Arkansas-Pine Bluff
April 14: Arkansas-Pine Bluff
April 16: Texas A&M
April 17: Texas A&M
April 18: Texas A&M
April 20: Grambling
April 23: at South Carolina
April 24: at South Carolina
April 25: at South Carolina
April 27: Missouri State
April 30: at LSU
May 1: at LSU
May 2: at LSU
May 7: Georgia
May 8: Georgia
May 9: Georgia
May 11: Arkansas State
May 14: at Tennessee
May 15: at Tennessee
May 16: at Tennessee
May 20: Florida
May 21: Florida
May 22: Florida