Close to Home, Tough as Nails: The Strategy Behind Baylor Soccer’s SEC-Heavy Schedule

Baylor Soccer isn’t shying away from tough competition in 2026. Baylor Soccer will face four SEC opponents in non-conference play — the most in head coach Michelle Lenard’s tenure — as the Bears prioritize proximity, physicality and resumé-building games.

The Bears of Betty Lou are scheduled to play at Arkansas, versus Texas A&M, at Texas and at LSU. So was there a focus on scheduling specifically SEC teams? And why?

Yes, and most of it comes down to two factors: quality and distance. The SEC has more schools closer to Waco than either of the other power conferences. 

“It’s a little bit of both,” head coach Michelle Lenard said. “There’s not a lot of benefit to us going and playing Big Ten teams early in the year because they’re further. Also, we’re going to go get beat up in those games early in the season. The SEC is very physical as well, but at least we’re dealing with closer teams, and we can minimize the travel when we do.”

Easing the travel burden early in the year isn’t the only benefit of scheduling SEC teams.

“We’re always going to have Texas and A&M and these teams that are right around the corner. They’re local rivalries for us … we’re going to always play those teams because it’s easy and it’s a school rivalry.“

Such a simple yet amazing philosophy. It almost brings a tear to my eye after watching college football and basketball move away from so many great, historical rivalries and matchups over the last decade.

Battling for wins, recruits and bragging rights with the schools in your state or the ones right next door? Man, it just means more.

I digress. The proximity is not the sole reason for these games. They play important roles in building a resumé worthy of at-large inclusion in the NCAA Tournament. 

Texas and Texas A&M have had some down years lately, but both programs have new coaches who know how to win serious hardware. Wins over both would be great for Baylor’s RPI.

Arkansas is the defending SEC regular-season champion and is consistently an NCAA tournament team. Opening the season with a win in Fayetteville would carry a lot of weight for the Bears’ resumé all year.

And LSU went the deepest in the postseason of the four schools, matching Baylor with a Sweet 16 appearance of their own.

The opponent quality doesn’t just give Baylor opportunities to strengthen their chances of making the NCAAs and getting a good seed. There are real, in-game lessons to be learned to help the team prepare for Big 12 play.

“From the SEC, you can guarantee to get a fast, athletic, physical game,” said Lenard. “With Arkansas in particular, we know we’re going to face that style of play throughout the season, and we know it’s hard for us to play against. So instead of avoiding [it], we want to go out and right away get exposed to the conditions that are difficult for us and try to grow. And I think we can win the game, but if we don’t, we learn how to deal with that because we're going to see it when we play Kansas. We’re going to see it against several of our conference opponents, and we might see them in the postseason.”

It goes deeper than the style of play, too. It tests the depth of the Bears’ squad.

“Part of the benefit to scheduling those games early is we almost have no choice [in testing the bench]. A good team is only as good as who you can bring off the bench … We need to see how deep we can go. Is it two, is it six? And I think we’ll find out really fast when we play those types of opponents.” 

Coach Lenard went on to note that the games at Arkansas and the home game against Texas A&M will be especially intense compared to games against quality opponents like Pepperdine and Texas State. There can be a conference tournament championship feel to the SEC games, which is good for giving less-experienced players a taste of it, but it isn’t necessarily conducive to getting used to playing at that level. That’s why the Waves and the Bobcats are on the schedule as well. NCAA Tournament-level quality with not quite tournament-level intensity; important games but not season-defining, at least by the way of scheduling.

Four SEC opponents in the non-conference schedule is ambitious, especially with three road trips. But for a program working to be “the Spain of the NCAA,” championships aren’t won by seeking out the easiest path. Lenard is deliberately choosing the harder one.