Colorado club baseball unveils loaded spring schedule
- Baylan Wysuph
- Jan 26
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 27
The Colorado Buffaloes club baseball team announced its full, action-packed schedule for the upcoming 2026 NCBA season. The Buffs welcome four non-conference opponents to Scott Carpenter Park this spring, including a handful of dynamic new competitors like Nebraska and Miami.
Dallas Tournament
Similar to 2025, Colorado opens its season on the road in a tournament. This February, the Buffs take off to Dallas for a round-robin with North Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor and Texas. None of the five teams participating, including Colorado, got votes in the NCBA’s Preseason Top 20 Poll, making for a circuit that’s anyone's game.
“It kinda rubbed me the wrong way,” senior club president Nathan Hoffman said about receiving zero votes in the poll. “It’s definitely bulletin board material. Everybody on the team was rubbed the wrong way, so there is a little extra motivation of ‘We got to prove ourselves.’”
Colorado’s first day of the season is a doubleheader on Feb. 13 against North Texas and Baylor. Both clubs finished below .500 last spring and missed the Gulf Coast conference regional tournament. The next day, the Buffs take on Baylor’s division rival, Texas, then wrap up the tournament on Feb. 15 against Oklahoma.
“I’m expecting pretty good competition,” Hoffman said. “The expectation is that we’re going to go 4-0.”
Early Non-Conference
The Buffs will have over three weeks to evaluate and fine-tune before entering the full swing of the schedule, beginning against Utah on March 7. The Utes went 11-7 last year and finished in the bottom half of the Northern Pacific East division, but are expected to improve in 2026.
Utah had a strong fall ball campaign, averaging over 14 runs a game and allowing less than five while going 5-2. The series will take place at Scott Carpenter Park, with games one and two on March 7 and game three on March 8.
After the Rumble in the Rockies, the Buffs play four games across four days against a past division opponent, the Colorado School of Mines. For the first time in nine years, the Buffs’ division, the Mid-America West, will not include the Orediggers. After last season, the club got demoted to Division 2 and joined the South division of the Rocky Mountain conference, now competing with the likes of Denver and CSU Pueblo.
The Buffs and Orediggers split the series, with the first two games on March 11 and 12 in Boulder and the last two on March 13 and 14 in Golden.
“We want our guys acclimated, [and we want] our pitchers to get innings before they have high-pressure situations,” Hoffman said about the importance of games before conference play.
Conference Play
The Buffs play their final six series against four Mid-Am West opponents, since the division only holds five teams in 2026.
They open with an elevated matchup against Metro State on the weekend of March 30. In the last meeting between the Buffs and Roadrunners during fall ball on Nov. 17, the game turned tense with a lot of trash talk from both sides in CU’s 14-13 victory. The Buffs will carry a little conference-opening bad blood into the Regency Athletic Complex in Denver.
“It’s really important to go 3-0 in the first conference series, that sets the table for the rest,” Hoffman said. “Starting off with a really scrappy team like Metro State is going to be difficult and a big test on what type of conference we’re going to be in this year.”
On the topic of bad blood, they return to Scott Carpenter Park for the Colorado vs. Nebraska rivalry to officially hit the diamond. The Cornhuskers will come in with just six games played under their belt, compared to the Buffs’ 14, in what should be an entertaining rivalry-fueled three-game set. That series begins on March 27 and wraps up with a doubleheader on March 28.
The Nebraska series will tee up Colorado for its most important stretch of the season. They consecutively play Colorado State, Air Force and Wyoming over three weeks. At the end of the day, these games could put the Buffs into the regional tournament and hopefully on course to win the division for the first time since 2023.
Air Force comes to town on the weekend of April 4. The Falcons tallied 12 division wins last year and constantly bring their A-game, making for a competitive series every time the two meet. CU has a little extra motivation, chasing a 20-4 loss last fall to get back at Air Force.
Scott Carpenter has back-to-back weeks of division action, hosting the Rocky Mountain Rivalry on April 10 and 11. CSU has taken the Mid-Am West from the Buffs the last two years, both times falling within a series shy.
“Air Force and CSU are the two biggest series,” Hoffman said. “When we present our schedule to our guys, we circle that date [CSU] … We think we have the more talented team, [and] we’ve felt that we’ve had the more talented team the last three years.”
After visiting Laramie, Wyoming, from April 17-19 for a three-game series with the Cowboys – who’ve finished near the bottom of the division for the last three years – the Buffs will know whether they’ve won the division or not. They have one final, four-game series against Miami at the end of April before the regional tournament, as the Buffs hope to make an appearance for the fifth straight season.
“We’re expecting [Miami] to be a challenge for us, [being] one last preparation before the regional tournament,” Hoffman said. “We haven’t performed the way we wanted the last two regionals.”
The Buffs are still chasing their 2023 slot in the NCBA World Series tournament, and begin the conquest on Feb. 12 in Dallas. Each series at Scott Carpenter Park this spring will stream on Sko Buffs Sports.
Comments