I see you Nebraska

11 days ago

With the regular season winding down and the conference tournaments starting up, the NCAA national softball tournament is barreling towards us at record speed. In fact, the selection show takes place on May 10th and then games get started at the regional level on May 15th. I really looking forward to watching some of the games this year. I have paid attention in the past, but not quite as much as I do now that I potentially have a niece in the tournament.

I think first though, I want to circle back to the title of this post. Nebraska has been having a pretty banger year when it comes to sports. Which is honestly really good for them considering they have been kind of lackluster since joining the Big Ten Conference several years ago.

This year saw them having a pretty decent football team (that's relatively speaking, because they used to be amazing back in the day), as well as a volleyball team that sat in the number 1 spot in the nation for most of the season. In fact, it wasn't until the conference tournament that they actually lost a set I think.

Then we have the men's basketball team that made it to the national tournament, and now a softball team that is holding the number two spot in the nation right behind Oklahoma. That's pretty dang awesome!

The top 25 teams are all pretty much guaranteed to make it to the national tournament with Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Texas Tech and last years champion Texas holding the top five spots. After that we have UCLA, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, and Florida State rounding out the top ten.

Eleven through fifteen is held by Duke, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Georgia, and Oregon. Then we have Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, Stanford, LSU, and Arizona completing the top twenty. Which leaves South Carolina, Clemson, UCF, Louisville, and Washington in the 21 to 25 spots.

On an interesting side note, the ace pitcher from Radford where our niece plays was recently ranked number 2 in the nation based on her numbers among all Division I pitchers. That's pretty impressive though probably a bit skewed given the difference in competition between mid-major schools and power conference schools.

Anyway, as I said yesterday, Tiffin gets started with their conference tournament today. Then next week we have Radford getting in on the action with their tournament. Meanwhile, the power conferences will be battling it out as well. Those are the games you will most likely see on ESPN or your conference affiliate. If you have never watched a softball game before, I encourage you to stop a few minutes as you are channel surfing and check one out!