SEC Baseball Opens 2026 Season in Dominant Fashion: Around the SEC

After a long offseason, the return of college baseball has finally happened. Teams across the country spent the Valentine's Day weekend kicking off their campaigns and beginning their quest for a trip to Omaha. For some, however, this journey began a lot smoother than others.

The No. 3 Texas Longhorns (3-0) certainly started off on the right foot, as they swept their way past the UC Davis Aggies (0-3) and to a perfect start in 2026. As for the rest of the SEC, it was a weekend with fairly similar results -- save for a few shocking outcomes and head-scratching losses.

Of the other 16 teams in the conference, 11 of them find themselves ranked in the latest D1Baseball Top 25 rankings. This comes as no surprise, though, as the SEC is far and away college baseball's toughest conference year in and year out, with this season looking to be no different.

Texas A&M Aggies outfielder Caden Sorrell — Aggies outfielder Caden Sorrell slides into third as The LSU Tigers take on Texas A&M. | SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

How the rest of the ranked SEC teams fared over opening weekend

Coming in at No. 2 overall ahead of the Longhorns, the LSU Tigers also took care of business in fairly dominant fashion against the Milwaukee Panthers with a sweep. Two of their victories came via a run-rule, as they won 15-5 in eight innings on Friday and 21-7 in seven on Sunday. Saturday saw them stave off a late rally in the ninth for a 5-3 victory.

After the Tigers and Longhorns, next in the rankings are the No. 4 Mississippi State Bulldogs. Life wasn't as easy for the Bulldogs, however.

While they did sweep their series against the Hofstra Pride, two of the wins were tight with a 6-5 victory on Friday and 7-5 triumph in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday. Moving right along, coming in at No. 8 and No. 9, respectively, are the Arkansas Razorbacks and Auburn Tigers.

Arkansas came into the season at No.7, but were bumped down one spot after going 2-1 at the Shriner Children's College Showdown. Those wins came against a pair of Big 12 teams in the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Texas Tech Raiders, while the TCU Horned Frogs handed them a 5-4 loss on Saturday.

Staying at their preseason rank, the Tigers had to fight for their sweep. The first two games in their series against the Youngstown State Penguins were 2-1 wins, followed by a 17-2 rout in the series finale.

Our next run of teams comes from No. 12-14 in the form of the Florida Gators, Tennessee Volunteers and Georgia Bulldogs. All three moved up one spot from their initial preseason rankings. Florida did so despite dropping their opener to the UAB Blazers 9-7 in extra innings, as the Gators bounced back and did win the series.

Tennessee managed to sweep their series against the Nicholls Colonels, outscoring them 27-3 and starting the Josh Elander era off in dominant fashion. However, Georgia also went 2-1 in its series -- having taken the first two games before dropping the finale against the Wright State Raiders 6-3 and not completing the sweep.

Rounding out the rest of the top 25 for the SEC are the No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats, No. 21 Oklahoma Sooners and No. 24 Texas A&M Aggies, with all three going 3-0. The Wildcats cruised against the UNC Greensboro Spartans while the Aggies had no trouble dispatching the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles which moved them up a spot.

Oklahoma, however, shined in the Shriner Children's College Showdown, scoring at least 10 runs in each win -- including a 12-2 drubbing of TCU on Sunday to jump into the rankings after being unranked. Unfortunately, success was not in the cards for the Vanderbilt Commodores in Arlington like it was for Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Even the unranked teams took care of business to start the season

They dropped their opener to TCU and were run-ruled by Oklahoma State on Sunday, going 1-2 to open the season and dropping out of the rankings completely as a result. Elsewhere, the other four SEC teams on the Longhorns' schedule handled their business.

Sweeping through their series, the Ole Miss Rebels handled the Nevada Wolfpack in convincing fashion. The other three teams all would go 2-1 on the weekend, with the Alabama Crimson Tide handling the Washington State Cougars, the Missouri Tigers taking the series from the Mount St. Mary's Knights and the South Carolina Gamecocks doing the same against the Northern Kentucky Norse.

Player of the Week

Caden Sorrell - No. 24 Texas A&M Aggies

In a conference full of superstars, there would be several great choices for this. That being said, Sorrell made it difficult for the selection to be anyone other than him after his dominant weekend at the plate. His numbers speak for themselves.

No matter what the Golden Eagles threw at Sorrell, the outfielder would not be put away. He went 9-for-15 on the weekend, finishing with a sensational .600 average while launching three home runs and racking a whopping 10 RBI. It doesn't matter what level of competition you face, those numbers are downright dominat regardless.