Taking Stock

2 days ago

We are right around halfway through the NCAA softball season now. If you have been following me this week, you got an update on two of my favorite teams, the Tiffin Dragons and the Radford Highlanders. Radford is back in action on ESPN+ tonight around 6 PM EST if you are interested in catching that. I know that's what I will be watching!

Meanwhile, the rest of the field continues to move along. Including the Division I power schools that usually get the most attention at the national level. While mid/majors like Radford occasionally get their chance in the spotlight, it's the players from the formerly mentioned power conferences that usually have the name recognition on a national level. It's also many of those players who go on to play at the professional level in the newly created league or for the Olympic team that will be making its debut in two years at the next summer games.

I was watching the game between Iowa and Iowa State the other night and it was an absolute slug fest. I think in the short span of 15 to 20 minutes that I had it on, there were at least three or four home runs hit between the two sides. That's part of what makes softball so exciting. The fact that the bases are so much closer together also gives you a lot of strategic running compared to what you might see in baseball.

It's funny the number of people who don't know what the difference is between the two sports, and while there are many similarities, there are also definite nuances that make each one special unto itself.

Right now Texas Tech is sitting in the top spot among the rankings with a record of 38-2 and something like a 17 game winning streak under their belt. Oklahoma sits in the number 2 spot at 38-3 with Alabama close behind riding a 6 game winning streak and a 35-3 record.

Rounding out the top five we have Texas and then Nebraska. I'm actually happy to see Nebraska doing so well. I might have to write a separate post about it, but they have been having a banger year as far as sports go.

For the rest of the top ten we have Arkansas, Florida, UCLA, Florida State, and then Tennessee.

Arizona followed by Virginia Tech who Radford just faced the other day comprise the 11 and 12 spots with Texas A&M, Georgia, and Mississippi rounding out the top 15.

Finally, the rest of the field in order includes Duke, Oregon, LSU, Washington, Oklahoma State, Virginia, Central Flordia, Stanford, South Carolina, and Grand Canyon.

Personally, I'd like to see a few more Big Ten schools in there, but what can you do. It's actually a little surprising that Michigan isn't in the mix as they generally have a pretty good team. In fact, it doesn't look like they have even received any consolation votes this week.

It's going to be interesting to see how much movement there is as we head into the conference tournaments and then the national tournament.