WCWS 2024: Texas, Oklahoma and the future of softball

OKLAHOMA CITY – In 1982, Dot Richardson helped UCLA win college softball’s first national championship. Those Bruins launched the Pac-10’s dominance of the sport. UCLA or Arizona won every national title from 1988 to 1997 until another West Coast power, Fresno State, finally tied the streak. Cal, Arizona State and Washington later added national championships to the Pac-10’s trophy case.

“There was a dominance in the Pac-10 that fueled the growth of softball,” said Richardson, who was the NCAA player of the decade in the 1980s. “It’s an example for other conferences to compete with.”

This Women’s College World Series officially ended that era and ushered in another — the arrival of the SEC Death Star, considered the overlord of softball and the WCWS in many years to come.

“The [Pac-]said Oklahoma’s Patty Gasso, who coached the Sooners to seven national championships this millennium. “It was always UCLA and Arizona. They are stepping stones to other teams. … The idea of ​​them destroying the Pac-12 is really confusing to me because of the history of softball. … I don’t know, I’m sentimental about it.”

Due to conference realignment toward football, the Pac-12 played its final softball game on Monday, when Texas eliminated Stanford.

Texas, the No. 1 overall seed, will face Oklahoma for the national championship starting Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+) in a best-of-three series. The second-seeded Sooners will win an unprecedented fourth straight national championship.

Next season, Oklahoma and Texas will compete in the SEC, where for the fourth time since 2017 all 13 programs competing in softball have qualified for the NCAA postseason. SEC programs also have eight of the top 16 seeds, not including the Sooners and Longhorns.

The latest round of conference realignment destroyed the Pac-12 and placed the SEC in softball dominance, potentially unlike any other conference in a sport.

“Honestly,” said Mike Candrea, Arizona’s interim athletic director, who won eight national titles and 1,674 games with the Wildcats to become the sport’s winningest coach. , it’s so heartbreaking.” “We live in a completely different world.”

Both Richardson and Candrea saw the change coming long before Texas and Oklahoma won the Big 12 for the SEC. Over the years, blue-chip recruits have gradually migrated from California to growing programs like Oklahoma. The Sooners have eight players from California on their roster, including senior All-American shortstop Tiare Jennings (San Pedro, California), who ranks third in NCAA history with 97 home runs in career.

In addition to three consecutive national championships, Oklahoma also unveiled Love Field this spring. The $48 million stadium seats 4,200 and features a 10,000-square-foot indoor training center. Many other top softball facilities are now located in the SEC.

Meanwhile, UCLA, despite winning 12 national championships, still plays in a stadium that hasn’t been renovated since 2005 and has only 1,300 seats.

“A Pac-12 coaching staff told me it’s not easy anymore, because [recruits] look at the facilities, and what do I get? You look at the NIL, and what do I get?” said Richardson, now the head coach at Liberty. She added that the SEC began seriously investing in softball after Michigan became the first program on the east of the Mississippi River won the national championship in 2005. “You start to see the SEC start to increase its level of development and facilities. So a lot of California, Arizona and West Coast athletes started coming east. And they came east because of the commitment to the sport of softball, because of the facilities and the salaries of the staff, the coaching staff and the commitment that was made.”

Recruiting for former Pac-12 schools isn’t going to get any easier. UCLA, Oregon and Washington will have to sell players to play in cold Big Ten weather, with road trips totaling thousands of miles. Pac-12 players, such as Paige Sinicki, the first Gold Glove Award winner in Oregon history, have balked at this predicament.

I chose to play in a high-level softball conference, which was close to home and would allow my parents to come watch my games. It was unfortunate knowing that my senior year I would be playing as far away as New Jersey-Rutgers as well as other schools on the east coast.

— Paige Sinicki (@paige_sinicki) August 4, 2023

“To see it get to this point is really sad,” Candrea said.

Cat Osterman, a former three-time national player of the year, still sees hope for non-SEC programs. But the former Texas great, who still holds school records for career wins (136), ERA (0.51), shutouts (85) and no-hitters (20), agreed that the SEC would Become a softball juggling machine.

“Other programs still have the ability to build and compete,” Osterman said, pointing to Oklahoma State, which has taken the WCWS out of the Big 12 five straight years. “But obviously, the SEC will be even stronger. with Texas and OU.”

Alabama coach Patrick Murphy, whose Crimson Tide won the SEC’s first softball national championship in 2012, said he “didn’t even want to think” the SEC schedule would be that difficult any. Texas coach Mike White, who hails from New Zealand and began his career at Oregon, said the new SEC will be “really, really tough,” adding that he could “have 15 games lost in that conference and still did pretty well.”

A loaded conference will not only be a challenge for the teams but also for the NCAA selection committee.

“We try to get the conference stuff out of the way when we start seeding teams and look at the whole year of doing that,” said Kurt McGuffin, chairman of selectors and athletic director at Tennessee-Martin. ”. “But certainly, the SEC provides great teams.”

McGuffin acknowledged the SEC’s impending dominance in softball can only be matched by the Big Ten’s current prowess in women’s volleyball, even though Texas has won the past two national titles in the sport. that sport. McGuffin said he envisioned programs from other conferences lining up to play SEC opponents to bolster their resumes for the commission.

“You go back to some of our criteria, top 25 wins, top 50 wins – the SEC will have a lot of those in their conference,” he said. “But we still look at the strength of the non-conference schedule. We still want to see you play against stacked people early in the season. If you’re not in the SEC, I think play against quality teams in A non-conference schedule, playing SEC teams, maybe not Oklahoma, Texas or Tennessee, but maybe even in the mid-range SEC teams, could help your non-conference schedule strength.”

UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, who won three national championships while playing for the Bruins and coached them to two more in 2010 and 2019, recalled when the Pac-12 was considered like that not long ago.

“When you think about the greatest tournament ever played in history, the championships, that’s the Pac-12,” she said. “That’s the main reason why so many people want to compete in the Pac.”

With the Pac-12’s consumption and the SEC’s investment in softball, it has become the new standard for the sport.

Florida coach Tim Walton, whose Gators won back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014 and beat Oklahoma and won another title this week, noted that the SEC has been the The top RPI (rating percentage index) conference does not include the Sooners and Longhorns.

“The SEC is different,” Walton said. … The trip, the fans, the passion, the number of fans. It’s just different.” “I’m so excited [Oklahoma and Texas] is coming to the SEC. I think they will expand the recruitment base for their shows and our shows, the television coverage and popularity. … We are now going to be the #1 plus/star RPI conference. This is going to be a challenge. We are in for a challenge. They are facing a challenge.”

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but softball is so much more than that. And Richardson, who every year faces many of the conference’s schools from Liberty, saw that clearly.

“I think the SEC,” she said, “is trying to dominate all sports.”