NCAA - Men vs. Women

[schwabach]

Nice piece in the Washington Post detailing how NCAA softball is not treated nearly as well as NCAA baseball. No surprises here, but maybe the NCAA will be shamed into making things better.

You may need a subscription to read the link. There is a lot of talk about the disparities between the college baseball world series and the college softball world series.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/04/23/ncaa-softball-college-world-series-disparities/

 

[marriard]

Interesting - since it is clear from TV schedules that college softball is broadcast far more than college baseball now.

The other thing is how the bracket schedule is created for the men versus woman. While there is SOME regionality in baseball brackets - it is completely regional in softball to keep travel costs to the absolute minimum. This hurts long term development of non-power 5 teams:

For example; in Florida unless you get a regional (which is REALLY hard), for all the D1 teams in statethere is no way to get past the first round; since you will ALWAYS be in the regional with Florida or FSU (and occasionally USF), no matter your national ranking.

 

[flash277]

Hmmm, like everyone here, I enjoy watching college softball, especially the World Series. And as a big fan of MLB (Let’s Go Mets!). I’ve never watched a college baseball game, have zero desire to watch one. I never knew it was as popular as softball.

 

[schwabach]

I like that softball has a better tempo than baseball. And somewhere along the line, I realized that the quality of play in high-level softball is as good as high-level baseball in terms of athleticism and numbers of errors and that sort of thing.

 

[Nimrod]

Good points made in the article. Facilities need to improve. One challenge is that Omaha might have more competition of other facilities in the country that could beat it out in a bid (there are more 'neutral' first-class baseball facilities by far than the same in softball). OKC doesn't have many competitors (perhaps no other legit competitors) so might be less inclined to give the NCAA what it wants for the NCAA's price. But regardless, it sounds from the article like the NCAA needs to push harder for more.

Another point raised was that the baseball world series is played on 12 days while the softball world series in 7.

Not sure why that's a problem, but I'm open-minded to other opinions. The article brings up the time in 2007 with Taryne Mowatt threw over 1,000 pitches over 6-7 days. But if you make the WCWS any longer, then it becomes more about who has the single best pitcher since she then can throw every game. She already does that in some cases (ig, Rachel Garcia in 2019). The 12 days vs. 7 days is justified because the sports are just different, IMO. Also, the 7 days keep my interest longer, and might help attendance because you can see more games/teams in a shorter period of time.

 

[_MIA_]

WCWS may not even be in OKC for much longer....

 

[Nimrod]

WCWS may not even be in OKC for much longer....

Where would it go? I haven't been following any news regarding that, so I'm in the dark. How many softball stadiums can accommodate it that aren't on a campus that might provide home-field advantage?

 

[_MIA_]

Where would it go? I haven't been following any news regarding that, so I'm in the dark. How many softball stadiums can accommodate it that aren't on a campus that might provide home-field advantage?

No idea. OK just passed legislation which isn’t too popular with the NCAA..

 

[JumboJack]

WCWS may not even be in OKC for much longer....

“The NCAA has agreed to keep the softball championship in Oklahoma until 2035”


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[_MIA_]

“The NCAA has agreed to keep the softball championship in Oklahoma until 2035”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That information may have been collected before the recent passed legislation..not sure of the timeline.

Despite NCAA warning, Oklahoma House moves to ban transgender athletes from female sports

The Oklahoma House passed legislation aimed at preventing "male-bodied athletes” from participating in female sports at K-12 schools, colleges and universities.

www.google.com