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Where Texas Baseball stands six hours from the Regional Host Site Announcement

by:Evan Vieth•05/25/25
Ethan Mendoza
Ethan Mendoza (Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

It’s been three days since Texas baseball’s 12th-inning loss to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal, ending Texas’ pre-regional play in its first game of the SEC Tournament.

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At the time of the loss, Texas was comfortably in the lead for the nation’s No. 1 overall seed, having secured an SEC regular-season title and leading the nation in Quad 1 (high-quality) wins.

But a lot of baseball has been played—and is still being played—since that barn burner against the Vols, and Texas has some anxious wait time ahead as the clock counts down to Selection Sunday. Tonight, the NCAA will announce its top seeds in the tournament, not the official Field of 64, but the Longhorns are sure to be one of the hosts when it’s all said and done.

Texas had two main competitors for that No. 1 seed. Though head coach Jim Schlossnagle denied caring much about where in the top eight he was placed, it’s undeniable that the top seed plays an easier strength of schedule in the postseason and benefits from favorable scheduling if they make it to Omaha. That’s a problem for the future.

The two teams that Texas was neck-and-neck with were Arkansas and Vanderbilt. Arkansas entered as the biggest competitor to the Horns, as not only did they come second in SEC regular-season play, but they swept Texas in head-to-head play. The Razorbacks taking the SEC Tournament would’ve been the worst-case scenario.

Thankfully for the Longhorns, Arkansas lost to Ole Miss in the quarterfinals, likely cutting any chances of that No. 1 spot. Just a 14-10 Q1 record will do that to you.

The Commodores are a different story. As you’re likely reading this, Vanderbilt and Ole Miss are facing off in the SEC Tournament championship game. Once again, Texas may feel the good graces of the Rebels taking down their biggest foe in seeding talks.

Vanderbilt has slowly crept up the power ratings and accumulated quite the résumé. They are now the No. 1 RPI team, a stat that strongly correlates to regional seeding, and are top four in pretty much every valuable stat. They also have 17 Q1 wins and might be the SEC Tournament champions.

If Vanderbilt were to take this game (currently 3-1 Vandy after five at the time of publishing), they would have more Q1 wins, an SEC Tournament win, and a better RPI, all with a harder strength of schedule.

That being said, it still may be hard to usurp the Horns. The regular-season SEC title often holds the most weight; three of the last four No. 1 overall seeds were SEC regular-season champions. Texas’ regular-season résumé is better than Vanderbilt’s, and it can be argued that Texas’ loss in the SEC Tournament is much more excusable because of their proven résumé and injury-riddled team.

D1 Baseball’s most recent projection has Texas at No. 1, Vanderbilt at No. 2, and Arkansas at No. 3. The projected Austin Regional would feature a rematch with UTSA as well as hosting Arizona State and Houston Christian. It would be a very interesting regional for UTSA transfer Ruger Riojas and Arizona State transfers Ethan Mendoza and Thomas Burns.

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If Inside Texas had to make a prediction at this second, even if Vanderbilt wins the SEC Tournament, we’d lean toward the Longhorns as the No. 1 overall seed. Even if the Commodores jump the Longhorns, Texas would be in a fantastic spot heading into the postseason, hosting as a national seed and likely avoiding any extremely scary regional opponents.

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