Big 10 softball

Why is the big 10 so far behind in softball? They don’t have any ranked teams this year. The conference seems to struggle with getting any teams to Oklahoma City let alone a super regional. Is it recruiting? The weather? The big 10 network also struggles with airing games . The conference seems to be about 10-15 years behind all the other conferences.

All of the above...

You're right about the BigTen Network - it's abysmal!

Keeping good coaches seems to be an issue at some schools. Obviously Hutchins retiring didn't help Michigan. And Minnesota's former Coach heading to Ole Miss hurt them. Wisconsin will likely never get top pitching and when they do they leave for Oklahoma! The Badgers made the biggest move they could by hiring Mike Roberts to work with their pitchers. Northwestern has had some notable success, but Indiana, Purdue and list of others never seem to produce down the stretch. Tough row to hoe.

like real estate: location, location, location. harder to recruit, harder to train, etc. etc. Plus even if say PSU or Mich were attractive to a talented girl from say CA, does she really want to travel all that way for MI or PA weather???

The west coast and southern teams have been far ahead in both baseball and softball for decades.

YoungBuck said:

All of the above...

You're right about the BigTen Network - it's abysmal!

Keeping good coaches seems to be an issue at some schools. Obviously Hutchins retiring didn't help Michigan. And Minnesota's former Coach heading to Ole Miss hurt them. Wisconsin will likely never get top pitching and when they do they leave for Oklahoma! The Badgers made the biggest move they could by hiring Mike Roberts to work with their pitchers. Northwestern has had some notable success, but Indiana, Purdue and list of others never seem to produce down the stretch. Tough row to hoe.

Click to expand...

minnesota had a great coach...left for Stanford.... Minnesota got another HC.... left quickly for Ole Miss. all within last 5-6 seasons i believe.

I don't think it's a lack of talent... now what they do with the talent I think is probably closer to the answer. When you look at the rosters at these large state schools it's not as though they have a significant number of players representing their state.

Big10 seems behind on coaching. They're a P5 conference, surely they should be able to recruit at a decent level right?

They do suffer from location, as softball players are more likely to stay closer to home vs a player willing to travel cross country to play football at the University of Michigan.

However I think the Big10 has been caught putting softball down the priority list while the southern schools are in a spending arms race with hiring top coaches and building new facilities.

Is the athletic department of a school like Michigan willing to move on from Bonnie Tholl, Hutch's successor if she does not bring them back their previous glory? Michigan football put leashes of 3 and 4 seasons in their football coaches before hiring Jim Harbaugh, because Umich football's standard is to be in contention of conference/national championships. Is it even the standard of B1G schools to make the WCWS in softball? I'm sure they care, but does the athletic director care enough to fire a coach and conduct a coaching search if they fail to make the postseason several years in a row?

Does any of this change with the west coast schools joining the conference next year?


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I’d say it’s a combination of all of that. DD wouldn’t consider Michigan Minnesota or Wisconsin due to cold weather. Purdue has been flat out awful so they were off the list. Indiana was great from coaching/facilities and the team is on the rise but ultimately felt the campus was too large. She simply wasn’t interested in Iowa or northwestern or any of the others


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Penn state on the upswing. Coach is fantastic and on year 3.

Talent/recruiting is the #1 reason that the Big 10 is behind the other P5 conferences. I was watching the Illinois vs Nebraska game today, there is a significant difference in the talent in Big 10 vs the SEC, ACC, or Big 12. Everything from team speed, quickness, and power. When I watch a Big 10 game vs a different P5 conference there is also a big difference in a lot of the hitters swings. So many poor swings taken in the Big 10.

I believe weather could be the #2 reason the Big10 is behind. Kind of sucks to play in low 40 degree weather that they are playing in right now. The weather certainly hurts recruiting to some extent.

The Big has the highest academic ranking of the P5 conferences. The ACC is very good also. The two conferences are pretty much neck and neck as far as academics go.

Last night we went to Texas-UCF. Texas had a freshman pitcher from Iowa who was absolutely lights out. She went to the same high school as Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark. Texas was probably a pretty easy choice for her as opposed to staying near home for any number of reasons.