Texas Longhorns Softball Earns Historic Preseason Ranking

The Texas Longhorns will soon return to the diamond in the 2026 season, in which the Longhorns are no longer the chasers but the ones being chased as head coach Mike White and his squad enter the season as defending national champions.

The Longhorns return to the field with their season opener coming in the UTSA Invitational from Feb. 6-8, in which Texas takes on an old foe in the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Feb. 6. In the three-day tournament at Roadrunner Field, the Longhorns take on the Washington Huskies twice, a second matchup with the Cornhuskers and a meeting with the hosts, UTSA to close out on Feb. 8.

And as the Longhorns head into the 2026 season as defending national champions and return plenty of their championship core from last season, the Longhorns rank among the top teams in college softball in plenty of preseason rankings, with the squad in burnt orange and white sitting atop recent lists.

Texas Ranked Preseason No. 1 by D1 Softball and ESPN.com/USA Softball

Texas Longhorns Softball — Texas Longhorns utility Katie Stewart (20) throws the ball in after fielding it in the sixth inning against the Oklahoma Sooners during the NCAA Softball Women's College World Series at Devon Park. | Brett Rojo-Imagn Images

For the first time in program history, the Longhorns were ranked the preseason No. 1 team in the country by multiple outlets on Tuesday. With D1 Softball having the Longhorns outright ranked as the top team headed into the season, while ESPN.com/USA Softball had Texas and the Texas Tech Red Raiders tied for No. 1 in their poll.

Not only is this a first in program history, but these two rankings are the highest for the Longhorns headed into the 2026 season, as in Softball America's preseason top 25 rankings, the Longhorns enter ranked as the No. 2 team in the country, only behind the Red Raiders.

It's not surprising to see the two Lone Star State programs jockeying for the top spot in many of the preseason rankings, as the Longhorns and Red Raiders met in the championship series of the Women's College World Series, in which the Longhorns took home the hardware, winning the series 2-1.

A return to Oklahoma City will be challenging for the Longhorns, who battle through a gauntlet of a schedule in 2026, taking on 36 teams that qualified for the 2025 NCAA Tournament, including 20 games against teams that advanced to the Super Regionals.

Just in conference play alone, the Longhorns take on seven SEC teams ranked in the preseason top 25 by D1 Softball in series throughout the season. The Longhorns are taking on No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 11 Texas A&M, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 14 Alabama, No. 17 Georgia, and No. 24 Ole Miss.