Where the players in the top 25 hail from

[slingnit]

Gang war, Nortenos vs Surenos!

 

[Ajaywill]

And what exactly is the benefit for the Huskies from these games?

Wow....I can't believe you all missed one very important thing.

All of the reasons provided so far are valid, but the other big one is recruiting and talent evaluation. The D1's are watching the JUCO players almost as much as they are watching their own players hoping to find players that could potentially help them. It's a "two birds with one stone" thing.

Almost all of our JUCO's here in Arizona play a fall schedule heavily involving local 18u and 18Gold club teams for the same reasons as the the D1's are playing the JUCOs.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Curious what the breakdown Nor-Cal vs. So-Cal looks like. Pretty sure I can guess.

For Washington, it's 50/50 north vs. south.

It was 3 NorCal and 6 SoCal on last year's top 25 roster. I'll be surprised if they're top 25 this year...

 

[Lobster Birch]

And there's this:

bear with me...

 

[Lobster Birch]

​

School CA Players Distance to Disney

UCLA 20 26
Arizona St 12 355
Arizona 13 471
Oregon 11 883
Washington 8 1161
Oklahoma 4 1340
Baylor 3 1400
Tulsa 2 1427
Texas A&M 0 1465
Nebraska 4 1492
Missouri 4 1736
LA-Lafayette 0 1744
LSU 5 1799
Minnesota 1 1920
South Ala 1 1995
Alabama 2 2005
Notre Dame 8 2090
Auburn 2 2121
Kentucky 2 2156
Tennessee 9 2177
Michigan 6 2237
Georgia 3 2237
Florida St 1 2237
Florida 6 2383
James Madison 0 2532

***sigh*** I can't get this to format right.

 

[guero_gordo]

School CA Players Distance to Disney
Cal State Fullerton 25 8

 

[Lobster Birch]

A couple more points. If UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St, Oregon and Washington are removed from the equation, California players account for about 15% of the players on the rosters of the top 25 teams. A very good number, but only slightly more than California's proportional percentage of the total US population, around 12%.

For the University of Washington, if Washington, Oregon and California were considered one big recruiting pool, the proportion of players expected from each state based on their populations would be 11.68 from CA, 2.12 from WA and 1.2 from OR for 15 players (the number of players the team actually has from those 3 states). Washington actually has 8 from CA, 5 from WA and 2 from OR, so you could say players from CA are actually underrepresented on the team.

I don't fully buy the "sunny state" explanation for California producing so many top college players. I suspect CA produces so many top players because they have so many players to begin with and besides having such a large population, softball is just more popular in CA than many other regions.

 

[Rocketech1]

A couple more points. If UCLA, Arizona, Arizona St, Oregon and Washington are removed from the equation, California players account for about 15% of the players on the rosters of the top 25 teams. A very good number, but only slightly more than California's proportional percentage of the total US population, around 12%..

Very misleading statement. If you remove those 5 colleges from the equation, those top CA players from those schools would be playing for one of the remaining top 20 teams, displacing non CA players out of the top 20.

Population is certainly a big factor in why so many CA players are at the top 25. But other factors are weather (ability to play year round, outdoors), competition as a whole is greater and easy access to any number of friendlies or tournaments every weekend of the year, Orange County, CA is ground zero for fastpitch in the US and attracts top coaches and former players from all over the US to coach and mentor the younger players, tradition and location (powerhouse travel ball orgs like Firecrackers, SoCal Athletics, and OC Batbusters are all based in Southern CA and have been producing top players and teams for decades.

 

[riseball]

Although CA players are very well represented in top programs, they also seem to be willing to pursue opportunities wherever available. They can be found in some unusual places well away from home playing for some pretty obscure programs. Although I make my home in Central Florida I currently work in Minot ND. The local DII, Minot State University has 6 players from CA. Minot, only 50 miles from Canada is truly in the middle of nowhere with temps dipping to -40 or less in the winter. A far cry from any climate on the left coast. On the other hand many of the players on my showcase team in Florida want to stay in state or at a minimum the Southeast. Some may be open to the Northeast or the rust belt but usually they are originally from there.

 

[Lobster Birch]

Very misleading statement. If you remove those 5 colleges from the equation, those top CA players from those schools would be playing for one of the remaining top 20 teams, displacing non CA players out of the top 20

You're right. That is misleading. I was thinking more geographical distribution when I wrote that. I suspect from going over the rosters that it takes a pretty good incentive to get CA players (all west coast players actually) to leave the west coast; a top program like Florida or a prestigious educational institution like Notre Dame. What the draw is with Tennessee I don't know. The big hair bows and creamsicle uniforms?

As to displacing non CA players, we can never know, probable as it may seem.