Three members of Kentucky's 2026 class will play in the Perfect Game All-American Classic, plus a rankings update from Perfect Game and news of a new commitment.
The SEC announced Kentucky’s 2025 schedule on Thursday afternoon. The schedule features series at Kentucky Proud Park against conference newcomers Texas and Oklahoma. It also features several challenging road series against teams expected to be in the preseason top 10, such as defending national champion Tennessee and national runner-up Texas A&M.
Way-too-early preseason top 25 rankings aren’t as popular in baseball as other college sports, but Baseball America released a ranking in late July. Based on this ranking, all five of Kentucky’s road series come against teams ranked in the top 20. Texas A&M (No. 5) and Tennessee (No. 7) landed in the top 10, and Georgia (No. 11), Mississippi State (No. 16), and Vanderbilt (No. 18) all have high preseason expectations. Kentucky was ranked No. 23 by the publication.
The opener at Georgia will pit the Wildcats against another SEC program on the rise. Former LSU assistant Wes Johnson took over the program following the 2023 season and quickly established the Bulldogs as a team to watch moving forward. Georgia won its first NCAA regional since 2008 before falling to North Carolina State in the rubber match of the Athens Super Regional. Despite the loss of the No. 3 overall pick and Golden Spikes Award winner Charlie Condon, Georgia looks to have one of the best teams in the country on paper. Former Kentucky assistants Will Coggin and Nick Ammirati are now on Johnson’s staff.
Texas A&M lost Jim Schlossnagle to rival Texas but kept most of its roster intact by promoting hitting coach Michael Earley to head coach. The Aggies, which sent Kentucky to the elimination bracket in Omaha, will have one of the most talented rosters in college baseball this spring.
Tennessee has established itself as a new power in the sport and became the first No. 1 overall seed since Miami in 1999 to win the College World Series. The Volunteers made Tony Vitello the highest-paid coach in the country with a record-breaking contract that pays him $3 million annually. Tennessee won the SEC regular season and SEC tournament in 2022 and 2024 and has been to Omaha three times under Vitello.
The final two road series of the year will be against teams coming off NCAA Tournament appearances. Mississippi State won the national championship in 2021 under Chris Lemonis but followed it up with back-to-back 9-21 SEC campaigns. However, one of college baseball’s great fanbases saw their team return to the postseason in 2024. Mississippi State was eliminated by Virginia in the regionals. Vanderbilt has appeared in every NCAA Tournament since 2006 but is searching for its first College World Series appearance since 2021, when it finished as the runner-up to Mississippi State.
New blood visits Kentucky Proud Park
Kentucky fans won’t have to wait long to see the SEC’s newest teams. Texas and Oklahoma come to Lexington about a month apart. Depending on how the season shakes out, the Oklahoma series could be the last three games played at Kentucky Proud Park in 2025. The Longhorns and Sooners bring strong programs to the league. Texas is a historically great program and just hired one of the best coaches in college baseball. Expectations for Schlossnagle will be high from the start. Oklahoma has consistently been a program competing for NCAA Tournaments and recently played for a national championship in 2022.
Final thoughts
The early home series against Auburn and Ole Miss will be important. These are the only two programs on the SEC slate that did not make the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and are not ranked in Baseball America’s preseason top 25. As always, some teams will underperform expectations and other teams will overperform, but on paper, these might be the two most winnable series on the schedule.
A difficult schedule is expected in the SEC. Every team gets challenged, and I doubt there’s a coaching staff in the league that feels like they have an easy road to the postseason. However, Kentucky avoided LSU and Florida during the regular season. Baseball America ranked the Tigers No. 1 in the preseason, with Florida at No. 2.
Along those lines, it’s strange not to see Florida on the schedule. This has typically been a competitive series throughout the past 20 years as the last sweep for either team came in 2005. Kentucky and Florida played four times this past season, with the Wildcats taking the regular season series in Gainesville two games to one. However, the Gators got their revenge in Omaha and ended Kentucky’s historical season.
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Derek Terry is the founder of Bat Cats Central, a leading source for University of Kentucky baseball coverage. Before leaving full-time sportswriting, Derek worked for The Cats' Pause (2017-22) and Cats Illustrated (2015-17).
