2023 on Deck

The holidays are never a good time for a fan blog who posts in spare time, as this entry shows. The UT Arlington baseball team had announced their upcoming schedule a few weeks ago, but I'm just now getting to it. Having to pick between my college or my kids isn't a fair choice.

This is the first season under new coach Clay Van Hook, so I was expecting something different. There are some newer teams coming in 2023 but was somewhat disappointed by what's coming to Arlington this year.

My understanding of scheduling in baseball is that schedules can vary widely year-to-year and aren't made far advance, unlike football where the non-conference slate is done five years or more down the line. So, a new coach can make a wild difference from the prior one. 

The season opens like many recently have with a three-game trip to Corpus Christi to play Texas A&M-CC. This will be the sixth year in a row these two teams play each other to open the season. UTA also plays the Islanders in a mid-week game in Arlington in late April.

UTA plays Dallas Baptist University twice, once at Globe Life Field after the initial series against the Islanders, then in mid-April at Horner Ballpark.

The Mavericks and TCU Horned Frogs renew their rivalry. The teams play two mid-week games in Fort Worth and one in Arlington. This one disappointed me in that UTA played twice in Fort Worth last year, and once at Clay Gould. The usual pattern was one at each school and the third game rotates between the two every year. It's one of the few games that consistently brings in a good-sized crowd, brings a good atmosphere and likely generates revenue for the program.

McNeese State closes out February with a three-game series at Clay Gould Ballpark. The Cowboys are the second most played opponent UTA has played at Clay Gould and will eclipse 60 games played in 2023.

The Oklahoma Sooners concluded the four-game home stand started by McNeese on March 1. UTA travels up to Norman at plays OU on May 16. Van Hook left the OU program to come to UTA, so despite Oklahoma playing UTA in Arlington before, I suspect that connection kept the series going.

UTA has a road trip against Northwestern State for three games. Outside of McNeese State and Texas State, Northwestern State was one of UTA's longest conference rivals. They've only played one game since departing the SLC. 

UTA has two Big 12 midweek away games at Texas Tech and a late May against UT-Austin, 

The Mavericks home midweek games include a non-conference contest against Western Athletic Conference rival Tarleton State (I suspect this was a contractual carry over as the teams played each the last few years), former SLC rival, thought-to-be-current-WAC-before-reneging-back-to-the-SLC Lamar.

The Mavericks play one tournament in Houston against the Cougars and Northwestern Wildcats, with two games against both of them.

Conference play consists of three games each against Tarleton State, Seattle, Sacramento State, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State at their place with home slates against Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, UT Rio Grande Valley, California Baptist and Utah Valley. UTA avoids two WAC teams: Grand Canyon, last year's regular season conference champs and NCAA tourney participants, and New Mexico State, last year's tournament champions and NCAA team.

The non-conference slate lacked some of the bigger names we routinely see come to town like Baylor and Texas A&M. UT-Austin has only played in Arlington once (at Globe Life Field), so that was a regular buy game as UTA Athletics knows it. I've liked what UTA has done with a more marquee game at the Texas Ranger's home in the past. Dallas Baptist doesn't move the needle as much for me this year. 

Baylor has come to Arlington more than any other opponent, save three other teams. The Mavericks have missed only one season since 2000 (2017) and two total seasons since 1979 (1999). 

I was really disappointed to see Texas State was not on the schedule. That means the University's longest played rival in all-sports (except men's tennis) was renewed for two of the five major team sports. They are also a quality opponent who could help UTA in many ways.

But the conference slate helps take up some of the slack. The road games are close if fans want to travel. The home slate is a little rough, as only Abilene Christian is a close game for road teams to visit Arlington. That said, Tarleton does come to town, though I'm not sure the Texans baseball fans travel much.

But for a rebuilding team that won only 15 games (and lost 39), the schedule may be to ease them into the Clay Van Hook era.