Perspectives of Collegiate Softball 2025: Oklahoma seeks to maintain supremacy while Texas and Florida aim

While a large part of the country, including me, is preparing for a snowstorm, the NCAA softball season started for 2025 to give us some hope that spring – and Women’s College World Series – Will come. Last year, Oklahoma became the first team in NCAA softball history to win four consecutive titles. With the new season in progress, let’s look at the biggest questions looming the college softball landscape and which teams may be looking for a title.

Can Oklahoma start again?

When Oklahoma won his fourth consecutive title, he entered the rarefied air of dynasty type programs such as Iowa Men’s Wrestling and North Carolina Women’s Football. These teams were so dominant that even people who were not paying attention to sport knew how good they were.

But Oklahoma has changed. Riley Boone, Nicole May and the other elderly people who won four titles in four years have disappeared. However, you should not count the Sooners yet. They are classified second in the country, and the second year student Ella Parker has already counted a dry player of the week honor for her to strike in the first weeks of the season. Oklahoma has just finished a 6-0 West Coast road trip, during which Parker struck 0.519 with 10 points, five doubles, a home run, eight products produced, three goals on balls and three stolen bases. Sooners N ° 3 also have many big throws, and they are trained by Patty Gasso, whose success has earned him the United States coach team as the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

Or is it the season that Texas or Florida Percède?

Oklahoma’s property on the NCAA softball title meant that some incredible teams could not win everything. With a younger and less experienced Oklahoma team, it may be the year when another team can shine.

One of these teams could be Texas (6-0). Longhorns lost in the final last year against the Sooners, a familiar enemy. The two teams often clashed in Big 12, then came to the dry together for the 2025 season. Currently, the best classified team, Texas has experience and launch to win, with players like Reese Atwood providing striking power.

For the first time, Florida n ° 2 (6-0) is in the same conference as the Sooners and Longhorns. The Gators reached the semi-finals of Women’s College World Series in 2024 and added key transfers for the 2025 season. Jocelyn Erickson is back to lead the team after reaching. 382 with 15 circuits and 81 points produced the season season last. She will be joined by the graduate student Rylee Holtorf, who was a speedster (7-in-9 in base attempts stolen in 2024) for Washington, and the Kenleigh Cahalan stop, which was transferred from Alabama And struck 0.296 with eight doubles, five triples and 30 points produced in 59 games last season.

Beyond the dry, the UCLA (currently classified fourth) and the Oklahoma State (10th) can also make noise and challenge for a title.

How will conference changes affect softball?

Conference changes may have been devoted to football, but the SEC also created a super-conference in softball. The SEC was already one of the most difficult conferences in softball, with 13 teams playing in the tournament last year. Now, they added Oklahoma, the 2024 national champion, and Texas, the finalist of 2024. In fact, 11 sec teams were in the first top 25 of the season survey. These teams will be played more often and will get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Texas will play three games in Florida in mid-March. In April, they will organize a conference game glove against Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma – all the top 10 teams. The last six games of Oklahoma before the dry tournament are against Texas and Florida and Florida .

Beyond the power of the dry, the expansion of the big ten means that teams like the UCLA, the Nebraska (n ° 17), the Oregon (n ° 20) and the North West (n ° 21 ) will compete early to strengthen their teams while trying to drop the dry.

Will I watch softball on television?

This is a very easy question to answer: yes! After the Women’s College World Series 2024 broke records of TV ratings, with 2 million viewers for the most watched WCWS finals, the powers that are wisely decided to make sure that many academic softball will be televised.

This weekend, ESPN Networks will broadcast the Clearwater Invitational, featuring teams like UCLA, Texas A&M (n ° 5), Florida State (n ° 9), Oklahoma State, Alabama (n ° 12), Missouri (n ° 16), Kentucky (n ° 24) and more.

This season, SEC Network will broadcast 50 softball games and the entire dry tournament, which takes place from May 6 to 10 in Georgia. The Big Ten Network cover begins on March 10, including the entire Big Ten tournament, which takes place from May 7 to 10 in Purdue. And ESPN will broadcast the Women’s College World Series in its entirety from May 30 from Devon Park to Oklahoma City.