How will the power 5 dissolve impact softball?

[Dabears17]

An article with thoughts from some softball players about the conference realignments:

Pac-12 Softball Players Are Pissed Off Over Conference Shake-Up: 'An Upsetting Day'

The Pac-12 is crumbling before our eyes, but it's not just affecting college football. Softball players are speaking out in opposition.

fanbuzz.com

 

[angispeds]

I wonder if we will see more Saturday double headers in softball to reduce missed class time? For example several colleges run mostly on a 4 day class week with very few classes on Fridays so Thursday evening flight a Friday late afternoon or night game with a Saturday double header and flight home on Sunday would work.


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[Gambler Bob]

I wonder if we will see more Saturday double headers in softball to reduce missed class time? For example several colleges run mostly on a 4 day class week with very few classes on Fridays so Thursday evening flight a Friday late afternoon or night game with a Saturday double header and flight home on Sunday would work.


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For convenience, it would be smart for schools to do more of a round robin schedule. For instance, if UCLA comes into University of Illinois to play it would be ideal for Indiana University to also be part of the schedule. UCLA could play Illinois twice and Indiana twice. UCLA would play One Friday game, two Saturday games and a early Sunday morning game. Makes sense to me. Then the following year they could do the same thing in Bloomington so there is no complaining about home field advantage.

I don't feel like 4 games in 3 days is asking too much.

Mid week conference games would be vs the teams nearer to each other.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

I wonder if we will see more Saturday double headers in softball to reduce missed class time? For example several colleges run mostly on a 4 day class week with very few classes on Fridays so Thursday evening flight a Friday late afternoon or night game with a Saturday double header and flight home on Sunday would work.


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That's common at every level. My older daughter played D3 this year, and her coach made it mandatory that they not take Friday classes for travel purposes. If they absolutely had no choice, the last start time was 10:00 AM, and that was only for girls in programs which required clinical rotations. And the only time they flew anywhere was for the Spring games in Florida.

 

[Vertigo]

That's common at every level. My older daughter played D3 this year, and her coach made it mandatory that they not take Friday classes for travel purposes. If they absolutely had no choice, the last start time was 10:00 AM, and that was only for girls in programs which required clinical rotations. And the only time they flew anywhere was for the Spring games in Florida.

Yeah. This past season the NESCAC combined the 2 divisions so they played double-headers on Sat/Sun against all the teams in the conference. Plus an out of conference double-header typically on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Players missed some classes to travel so there was a lot of communication between players and their professors. Tests/exams were usually taken earlier if they had to miss them to travel. Lots of school work was done on the bus or at the hotels. Travel was either late Friday evening or early Saturday morning depending on how far away the school was. Then back on the bus immediately after 2nd game on Sat to next hotel for the games on Sun. It wasn’t easy, but they managed.

 

[coachdennis]

While they use various ways to not admit it on paper, Power5 Teams have lots and lots of money and run on a surplus so it will have very limited effect except for scheduling which becomes a huge PIA and will add even more hours to the athletes time they need to spend with their teams over classroom (which matters to many of these athletes).

Even while softball is technically a revenue sport, most of the softball stadiums in the SEC that have been built because many of their football programs have run out of things to upgrade or build and they need to spend on some big ticket items

All this bickering and change is all over how much money these schools can grab.

Some simple methods on hiding revenue numbers:

• Count all scholarships as expenses at the highest rate the school charges
• Don't count parking, concessions or merchandise as Athletic revenue - put in general college funds
• Don't count booster contributions as revenue - put in the general fund
• Don't count licensing deals directly - make them a University deal...
• Make sure the building costs are big and on the program

And so on. Even with all this, many schools STILL can't hide all the money

Some examples:
University of Michigan reported a surplus of $17M last year.
Michigan State claimed they broke even in their financial disclosure... down to the dollar so you know that is total BS.
University of Arkansas had a 8M surplus
U of Texas - 14M surplus
.. and so on.

BIG10 Schools will get $60Miill with increases up to $100Mill over the next 6 years with the media deal. Crazy! The business of education is doing very well.....

 

[Westwind]

I wonder if we will see more Saturday double headers in softball to reduce missed class time? For example several colleges run mostly on a 4 day class week with very few classes on Fridays so Thursday evening flight a Friday late afternoon or night game with a Saturday double header and flight home on Sunday would work.


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They are already traveling on Thursdays. So they can practice on the field before the games. On Thursday.

What drives college softball scheduling in P5 conferences isn’t class time or academics. It’s tv scheduling. Have you not noticed Monday night conference games?

Nobody cares about your kids academics except you and your kid. Except possibly the hc who wants them eligible and when they want to announce a high team gpa.

For convenience, it would be smart for schools to do more of a round robin schedule. For instance, if UCLA comes into University of Illinois to play it would be ideal for Indiana University to also be part of the schedule. UCLA could play Illinois twice and Indiana twice. UCLA would play One Friday game, two Saturday games and an early Sunday morning game. Makes sense to me. Then the following year they could do the same thing in Bloomington so there is no complaining about home field advantage.

I don't feel like 4 games in 3 days is asking too much.

Mid week conference games would be vs the teams nearer to each other.

I don’t think there is enough pitching. And the networks want the Montana’s and Jordy’s and Kelly’s pitching as many games as possible.

I’m looking forward to the UCLA parents reaction to spending a few days in Beautiful Champaign, lol. The softball facilities will certainly impress. Don’t forget to bring a jacket, lol!

 

[Vertigo]

I don’t think there is enough pitching.

Why don’t you think there is enough pitching to play 4 games over 3 days? We do it with 3 pitchers over 2 days. In most cases, only two of the 3 are pitching in those conference games. Would it be nice to have more pitching? Yes, but I’m sure the schools in those conferences can easily get a few more via the portal or with their next recruiting class. We aren’t that lucky.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Would like to see some of the Pac 12 players enter the portal in protest. Would be great for the Big West and Big Sky conferences. I think the Big West play 1 on Friday night and 2 on Saturday. That's a great schedule. Sunday is for family, church, picnic, beach, homework, practice?

 

[Westwind]

Why don’t you think there is enough pitching to play 4 games over 3 days? We do it with 3 pitchers over 2 days. In most cases, only two of the 3 are pitching in those conference games. Would it be nice to have more pitching? Yes, but I’m sure the schools in those conferences can easily get a few more via the portal or with their next recruiting class. We aren’t that lucky.

I think that after watching how college teams manage pitchers there just isn’t enough good pitching. Most teams have one that they try to use Friday and Sunday to take the series and scratch out a win on Saturday. And all p5 isn’t top teams. The big 10 teams struggle more with getting pitchers than SEC teams do. Dd’s team had 5 pitchers and used mostly 3 throughout the season. 2 of the three were barely effective and gave up run rule games regularly.

The point that I’m making here is that tv changes everything. If you were going to an Alabama game or tuning in to one, you wanted to see Montana pitch. And ESPN wanted to have her on tv. Four games per weekend and a midweek matchup and who else is pitching that added game per week?

Now look at Florida. Florida struggled this season putting one pitcher out there that could nail down a game per weekend. How hard is it to get a kid to come to Florida to pitch? Not very, I would think. But now they have to come up with pitching for another game per weekend?

How about Tennessee? Great staff. One battles injuries.

See what I mean? I don’t think there is enough pitching. Even at that level. Every team isn’t Oklahoma with a pen full of All Americans.