FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ non-conference schedule isn’t getting any easier any time soon.
With road games at USC and Texas on their 2019 slate, the Razorbacks will play in early-season tournaments each of the next two seasons, as well as a home-and-home series with Michigan State and Oklahoma.
Next season, Arkansas will play in the Shriners College Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston with matchups against Big 12 foes Oklahoma, Baylor and Texas.
It will be the Razorbacks’ third time in the event and first since 2016, when they swept Rice, Houston and Texas Tech. They also participated in 2012 and went 2-1 with wins over Texas Tech and Texas and a loss to Houston.
The early-season tournament in 2021 is actually on the opening weekend of the season. Much like the Shriners Classic, it will be played in an MLB ballpark and feature three games against Big 12 teams.
Playing at Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers’ stadium that will have a retractable roof and is currently under construction in Arlington, Arkansas will square off against former SWC rivals TCU, Texas and Texas Tech. Ole Miss and Mississippi State will also participate, making it a Big 12/SEC Challenge of sorts.
“It’s something I’m excited about, but a little bit nervous because you never know how weather’s going to be for practice (leading up to it),” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “So I hope we’re good, that’s all I can tell you.”
For the Razorbacks, it will be the first time they’ve opened a season away from Baum-Walker Stadium since doing so three straight years from 2005-07. Before that, you have to go back to the 1994 season - when Arkansas still played at old George Cole Field - to find an opener outside of Fayetteville.
The home-and-home series with Michigan State will begin with a trip to East Lansing, Mich., in late April 2020. The Spartans will come to Fayetteville the following season.
“It’s all about getting them back the next year,” Van Horn said, referring to the difficulty in scheduling home games.
Arkansas and Michigan State have never met in baseball. In fact, playing Big Ten opponents is rare for the Razorbacks. They are 24-8 against the conference with only a handful of those games coming since the turn of the century.
East Lansing will also be one of the northern-most cities in which Arkansas has ever played. The only cities further north to which it has traveled are Seattle (1992) and Minneapolis (1993, 2001 and 2007), but those were for early-season tournaments.
The home-and-home agreement with Oklahoma will also begin on the road, with the Razorbacks traveling to Norman, Okla., in 2020 and a return to Fayetteville in 2021. As mentioned earlier, the Sooners will also play Arkansas in the Shriners Classic next season.
Those matchups will be the first between the schools since 2012. The Razorbacks lead the all-time series 14-11, including two dominant wins in the 2009 Norman Regional en route to the College World Series, but have lost the last two games.
Van Horn did not specify whether the Michigan State and Oklahoma home-and-homes are midweek or weekend series. However, they will presumably be midweek matchups because late April - when Arkansas heads north to play the Spartans - is the middle of SEC play and the Sooners are a local team, making travel in the middle of the week easier.
He did specify that Arkansas would be playing a three-game weekend series at Louisiana Tech in 2021. It will be a return trip for the March 8-10 series the Bulldogs are playing at Baum-Walker Stadium this season.
The Razorbacks also traveled to Ruston, La., for a two-game midweek series - which the teams split - in 2017. Multiple games between the two schools stems from the relationship between Van Horn and Louisiana Tech head coach Lane Burroughs, whose careers briefly overlapped at Northwestern State in 1997.
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