Florida State's 2026 softball season ended with a loss to the UCF Knights in the Tallahassee Regional, but their season was incredibly successful, and Team 44 is looking to next year to be another great one.

D1Softball's Justin McLeod published an analysis of FSU's softball schedule a few days ago. Their schedule includes five games at the Sarasota Classic, with most of their matches being out-of-conference. They will also play in the Shriner Children's Clearwater Invitational from February 18th to the 21st.

Their non-conference away games include a trip to Fort Myers to take on Florida Gulf Coast, a trip to Mobile for a game against South Alabama, and just before conference play begins, the Seminoles will take a trip to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama.

McLeod had some takeaways from this schedule:

This one is a classic FSU schedule. There are some top-dollar matchups, including neutral site games and true road faceoffs, as well as a plethora of games against both mid-level and subpar opponents. Midweek games are still plentiful too, though not as rampant as has been the case in the last couple of years.

There are three road midweeks against mid-major opponents and all three have the potential to be “trap” games for FSU. The visit to FGCU in Fort Myers is on the calendar between weeks one and two, while the South Alabama game is en route to the rematch at Alabama and the visit to Stetson follows two consecutive road conference series’.

FSU’s Clearwater slate will be both notable and very key. The field of potential opponents for the ESPN tournament is as weak as it’s ever been, but there are still a handful of potential top-dollar foes that the Noles could find on their schedule.

This is the heartiest conference schedule that the Noles have had in a few years’ time and the fans at Joanne Graf Field will certainly get their money’s worth by year’s end. The ACC home slate is particularly stacked, including Stanford, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Duke.

They are pinning the matchup versus South Alabama as the one to watch. As McLeod puts it:

It may not stand out amongst a plethora of top-dollar opponents on Florida State’s schedule, but the Jaguars of South Alabama have made their mark as giant-slayers – including taking down four separate SEC opponents in the same season just a couple of years ago. This matchup is in Mobile, on the Jags’ home field, and on the calendar as a directionally-convenient midweek as the Noles head north to Tuscaloosa for week five.

Florida State begins its 2027 season against James Madison on Feb. 11.