Mizzou baseball released its 2026 schedule on Thursday, with the season totaling 56 games from February 13 to May 24.
The Tigers will take on one College World Series team, two regional champions, the reigning
SEC champions and 11 NCAA Regional qualifiers. In-state matchups certainly weren’t neglected either as Lindenwood, SEMO, and Missouri State are all on tap for Missouri to clash.
Kerrick Jackson’s squad begins its campaign with three neutral-site games in Fort Myers and as opposed to the beginning of last season, no non-conference tournaments. Mizzou will face off against Mt. Saint Mary’s from February 13 to February 16 before playing one away game against Florida Atlantic on February 17 in Boca Raton. The Florida slate will end for the Tigers with a three-game series against New Haven.
Mizzou’s home opener won’t be against an in-state opponent for the third straight season; it’s the Golden Lions from Arkansas-Pine Bluff who travel to Taylor for a pair of matchups from February 24 to February 25. Then, the Tigers will have a three-game series against North Dakota State from February 27 to March 1st.
The first Taylor Stadium home stand in non-conference play will conclude with a four-game series against UIC spanning from March 5th to March 8th, and then two days later, Southern Indiana will travel down for a one-off contest on March 10th.
There will be a series of midweek games for the Tigers, which includes a Border War matchup against the 2025 NCAA Regional qualifier, Kansas, in Lawrence on March 17. The Tigers will then take on Illinois at a neutral site that is still TBA on March 24. Last season, the Braggin’ Rights matchup for the Tigers against the Illini took place at Arsenal BG Ballpark, the home of the Gateway Grizzlies outside of Saint Louis.
Missouri will play in St. Charles, Missouri, to take on Lindenwood on March 25, then has a second matchup with the Jayhawks in Columbia on March 31, a home-and-away midweek series with Missouri State on April 7 (editor’s note: my birthday!) and April 14, SIU Edwardsville on April 21, Southeast Missouri State on April 28, and a home matchup with Arizona State on May 5. The ordering of the SEC schedule for the Tigers begins with a tough SEC opener against high-level opposition.
Auburn, which attained the No. 7 signing class of 2026, made a big-time leap last season. A last place finish in the SEC West, which included an 8-22 SEC record, quickly expanded to a sixth place finish in the whole of the SEC, a 41-20 record, and a berth as the fourth-seed in the NCAA Auburn Regionals and Super Regionals. Despite the season ending in an upset loss to Coastal Carolina, Butch Thompson’s squad will be no pushover for Missouri and is a reloading program that pulled in its 3rd straight top-10 class.
After its three-game series against Auburn from Mar. 13 to March 15, the Tigers will then travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, for their first SEC road series of the season from March 20 to March 22 to take on the 2024 National Champion and the 2025 Knoxville Regional Champion Volunteers who have a new coach at the helm after Mizzou alum Tony Vitello departed for the major leagues.
Other SEC opponents include Mizzou hosting Texas A&M from March 27 to March 29. Last season, Mizzou swept the preseason No. 1 Aggies in College Station, after its previous record of 0-24 in SEC competition. Following this series against the Aggies, the next SEC series is a three-game road trip to Lexington for Missouri’s matchup against Kentucky, then Mizzou returns home to face South Carolina from April 10 to April 12.
Another highlight for Missouri in the SEC is the two rivals it will permanently clash against in conference play, including its former Big 8 opponent, the Oklahoma Sooners. Missouri will travel to Norman from April 17 to April 19 before hosting its Battle Lines rivals, Arkansas, from April 24 to April 26.
Missouri hits the road again for a weekend series at Georgia from May 1-3, then returns to Columbia to host the reigning SEC champions, Vanderbilt, from May 8 to May 10. The Tigers conclude SEC play with a road trip to Austin, Texas, against the Longhorns from May 14 to May 16.
A process that began last season, every SEC squad qualifies for the conference tournament that’s in Hoover, Alabama, each game being single elimination. The SEC Tournament is scheduled from the first round matchups beginning on May 19 to the conclusion of the last stage before the NCAA Regionals on May 24 in Hoover, Alabama.
