FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas released its 2021 baseball schedule Tuesday, one month before the scheduled season opener against Texas as part of the State Farm College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, Texas.
Here are nine observations about the Razorbacks' schedule:
Beginning on the road, ending at home
Most of Arkansas’ baseball schedules begin with a home series and end with a road series.
The opposite is true this season.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to open with three games Feb. 19-21 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where a game apiece is scheduled against Texas, Texas Tech and TCU. Arkansas is scheduled to end the season with a three-game home series against Florida on May 20-22.
It will be the first time Arkansas has opened away from Baum-Walker Stadium since 2007, and the first time the Razorbacks are scheduled to end the regular season at home since 2011.
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn has said previously that end-of-season schedules are set around universities’ final exam schedules. Arkansas’ final exams are usually the week leading up to Mother’s Day each year, including this year.
There is usually only one regular-season weekend between Mother’s Day and the start of the SEC Tournament, but there are two this year because Memorial Day — which dictates the start of the SEC Tournament — falls on the final day of May.
Arkansas is scheduled to play Georgia at home the weekend following final exams.
Only 54 games
Arkansas’ schedule includes 54 games, two below the maximum allowed of 56, but more games could be added in the upcoming weeks.
Scheduling was complicated this year due to covid-19 protocols that varied from conference to conference. For instance, a scheduled midweek series against Nebraska was canceled because the Big Ten is requiring its teams to play only games against conference opponents.
Arkansas also lost a game against Abilene Christian of the Southland Conference, which was scheduled for March 10. According to a report by D1Baseball.com, the Southland Conference is expected to have a 40-game conference schedule, which would reduce nonconference opportunities by 10 games for each team.
6 games vs. in-state teams
Arkansas will host Arkansas-Little Rock and Arkansas-Pine Bluff for two games, and Central Arkansas and Arkansas State for a game apiece at Baum-Walker Stadium.
It is the third consecutive season the Razorbacks have scheduled UALR and UAPB, although last season’s games were not played due to the covid-19 outbreak that canceled the season in March. The Razorbacks lost to UALR and defeated UAPB two years ago.
The games against UCA and Arkansas State were added after a scheduling ban against those teams was lifted last summer. The Razorbacks have never played either team.
No game in North Little Rock
The Razorbacks’ April 20 game vs. Grambling was originally contracted to be played at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock, but was moved to Fayetteville.
That move follows the basketball team pulling out of a scheduled game in North Little Rock in December. Both changes were related to reducing travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
Arkansas hopes to resume playing a baseball game each season in North Little Rock in 2022. The Razorbacks played there each season from 2010-19 and had a scheduled game there canceled last year.
Date change
The Razorbacks were originally scheduled to play Oklahoma at home on March 9, but the date was pushed back one week to March 16.
If the game is played, it will be the Sooners’ first regular-season game at Arkansas since 2009. The Razorbacks had scheduled home games against Oklahoma rained out in 2011 and 2013.
The Sooners came to Baum-Walker Stadium for an exhibition game in the fall of 2019.
Arkansas and Oklahoma were scheduled to play twice last season, but only played one game before the season was canceled — a 6-3 victory by the Sooners at the Shriners Classic in Houston. The teams were also scheduled to play in Oklahoma City.
Same SEC schedule as 2020
The order is different, but the SEC opponents and playing sites are the same as the 2020 schedule. No SEC games were played last season because of the covid-19 outbreak that halted the season one day before SEC play was supposed to begin.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to host SEC series against Auburn, Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida and Georgia, and play at LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee this season.
That means Arkansas will go three years between hosting series against LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss at Baum-Walker Stadium unless they meet in a postseason super regional. The Razorbacks will also go three years between trips to Texas A&M, Alabama and Auburn.
Nonconference trips
Two of Arkansas’ four nonconference weekends will be spent on the road.
In addition to the three-game event in Arlington, the Razorbacks are scheduled to play at Louisiana Tech on March 12-14. Those games will be among the first at the rebuilt Love Field in Ruston, La., which was significantly damaged by a tornado in 2019.
Arkansas scheduled the baseball series at Louisiana Tech so as not to conflict with the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships that are scheduled the same weekend at Randal Tyson Track Center, next door to Baum-Walker Stadium.
Van Horn assistants
The schedule includes 15 combined games against five teams coached by former Van Horn assistant coaches — Andy Sawyers of Southeast Missouri State, Lane Burroughs of Louisiana Tech, Chris Curry of Arkansas-Little Rock, Rob Childress of Texas A&M and Tony Vitello of Tennessee.
Only Vitello and Curry coached under Van Horn at Arkansas. Vitello was the Razorbacks’ hitting coach and recruiting coordinator from 2014-17, and Curry was a volunteer assistant in 2009-10.
Childress was a 10-year assistant to Van Horn at Texarkana College, Northwestern (La.) State and Nebraska, and Sawyers was a volunteer assistant at Nebraska in 2000.
Burroughs was hired by Van Horn as an assistant coach at Northwestern State in 1997 but never coached a game with Van Horn, who was hired away by Nebraska prior to the 1998 season.
Schedule strength
The Razorbacks should have one of college baseball’s toughest schedules.
In addition to the always difficult SEC West that includes three teams — LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss — that are expected to be highly ranked when the coaches’ poll is released later this month, Arkansas is scheduled to host SEC East juggernauts Florida and Georgia. The Gators are a popular preseason pick to win the national championship in 2021.
The opening weekend in Arlington could include teams that are all ranked in the top 10 — Texas, Texas Tech and TCU. All have played in the College World Series at least once since 2017.
Oklahoma might also make its way into a preseason ranking, as might SEC opponents Texas A&M, Auburn, Tennessee and South Carolina.