What is wrong with the Big10?

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Oct 15, 2013
727
63
Seattle, WA
I went to see Washington play visiting Penn State Friday night and it wasn't much of a contest. Washington won 15-0 with a freshman pitcher making her 1st start for the Huskies. Washington beat Penn State three times last week by a combined score of 37-2. I've seen local junior colleges be more competitive against Washington.

The Big10 has Minnesota (also lost twice to Washington last week) and Michigan ranked in the top 25. Of the 14 teams in the Big10(?) 8 have a losing record. The conference overall is 138W/149L. Comparatively, the PAC12 is 174/40.

What gives? Why the disparity?
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
According to the Massey Ratings, the high end of the Big 10 is no different than last year. It's not unusual for the Big 10 to have only 2 teams in the Top 25. Michigan is down, but Wisconsin has had a great pre-conference season. Where the difference appears to lie is (crunching the numbers and rankings) is that the Big 10's bottom 6-7 appear to be especially weak compared to last season.

As to the disparity between the Big 10 and the Pac 12, I mean, the Pac 12 and California in particular are what made college softball popular. I don't know if the Big 10 will be on par with the Pac 12 in our lifetime. Lot of tradition and climatic advantages on the left coast.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
The big ten is not a deep conference. In addition the location doesn't help either. Of those almost 300 games played, how many were home games? How many were in state? I'm guessing the PAC 10 doesn't have to travel as far for spring games
 
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
watched Penn St beat LSU in a game early this season and came away pleasantly surprised and impressed.
hey had a 6' tall and slim pitcher that threw great drop ball/change up based game.

maybe that was just a flash in the pan?

Hoover didnt start that game for LSU, and had to cone in in about the 3rd or 4th to try and stop Penn St bats,
and wasnt particularly sharp, at first. But still a good win for a non top-25 team against a perrenial powerhouse...
 
May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
The weather sucks for Big 10 schools, difficult to play any home games for the first half of the season. It is a high of 28 degrees today here in the Chicago area. I really think it is a hard sell to convince top recruits from the southeast of west coast to come to the midwest to play softball in March and April. Sure the Big 10 will have some good teams now and then but I don't think they will ever be on par with the SEC, and Pac 10 on a consistent basis.
 
Jul 19, 2014
2,390
48
Madison, WI
And, Chicago is warmer than some of the B1G towns, like Madison, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor and Lansing.

There have been times my DD 3 has played softball in snow flurries in mid-May.
When it's not cold, it's often pouring down rain.

Sometimes the local high schools play half or more of their games in the last week of the season.
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
Do not follow all the Big 10 schools, but I know Purdue really misses Lily Fecho...

The last Purdue coach was a terrible game manager in my opinion.

High schools should be playing softball in the fall and not in the spring. Not sure you could ever swing that with college....
 

Ken Krause

Administrator
Admin
May 7, 2008
3,911
113
Mundelein, IL
Hopefully as there gets to be more parity across the country the B1G schools will be able to rely on talent that was grown closer to home and is used to the lousy weather conditions.
 
Aug 10, 2015
21
0
That's part of the problem, we live in Illinois and have been to some big 10 camps and it seems they have zero interest in girls from the Midwest, evidently only good players are from California. If they would open their eyes they would see that there are some tremendous players right out their back door that would love to play for the home state schools.
 

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