Jim Schlossnagle: What to know about Texas baseball coach
Four things to know about Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle
Jim Schlossnagle has tunnel vision.
The Texas baseball coach said on April 16 that he’d love to win the SEC title. His Longhorns (42-11) checked that box on Thursday when they beat Oklahoma in Norman to secure the league crown.
“But that doesn’t get you to Omaha,” Schlossnagle said.
Schlossnagle’s stated goal all season long has been to position the Longhorns as best he can to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. In 23 prior seasons as a Division I head coach, Schlossnagle has steered seven teams to the College World Series. The 2025 Longhorns will benefit from home-field advantage through the regional and super regional rounds as they look to become the eighth Schlossnage team to play their way to Omaha.
Since 2013, when the SEC kicked off its 21st-century expansion by adding Missouri and Texas A&M, every regular-season champion has earned a top-eight national seed.
That security should remove any nerves for Texas fans during the NCAA Tournament selection show, which is set for May 26 at approximately 11 am CT. But there are still some questions left hanging.
Primarily: Have the Longhorns done enough to earn the No. 1 overall seed?
The NCAA selection committee has awarded three of the last four No. 1 seeds to teams that won at least a share of the SEC regular-season title. That trend, obviously, bodes well for the SEC champion Longhorns.
But each of the last four top overall seeds has finished at the top of the Rotary Power Index (RPI), and that trend presents Texas’ chances less favorably.
At the conclusion of their win over Oklahoma on Saturday evening, the Longhorns ranked fourth in the RPI, according to warrennolan.com. That puts them behind Georgia, Auburn and Vanderbilt, all SEC peers of the Longhorns.
The SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., this week will present Texas with the opportunity to move up. But if the Longhorns don’t make a move, the selection committee will have an interesting choice to make: Do they seed the Longhorns according to the RPI, or the SEC standings?
Schlossnagle, for his part, maintained all season that his goal was to simply get the Longhorns in the field of 64 and go from there.
“I start every season saying, ‘Just give me the four seed in Anchorage and I’ll take it,'” Schlossnagle said on May 8.
The Longhorns can leave the parkas in the closet, they’ll be playing in Austin. But who could they face?
Here are some expert projections from last week.
Texas baseball NCAA Tournament projectionsD1 Baseball
TexasDallas BaptistUSCHouston ChristianBaseball America
TexasDallas BaptistUT Rio Grande ValleyBryantUSA TODAY Sports
TexasUTSAKansasCentral Connecticut StateSEC Tournament bracket
The Longhorns earned the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament by winning the regular-season title. That earns them a double-bye in Hoover next week under the newly overhauled SEC Tournament format.
Texas will play either Missouri, Alabama or Tennessee at 3 p.m. on Thursday in a single-elimination quarterfinal. With a victory, the Longhorns would move on to the semifinals on Saturday at noon.
Reach Texas Insider David Eckert via email at deckert@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Access all of our best content with this tremendous offer.