Quite a bit of information comes across the desk of National College Softball Editor Justin McLeod- that’s me. The Dugout Digest is my column where I share everything from coaching scoops to spotlight articles to recommended reading material.
In today’s edition of the Digest, we’ll do one big recap of the summer that was and get ready for preseason coverage – which starts ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, October 10th, by the way.
As per usual, with comments or questions (for a future mailbag or just in general), you can send me an email: justin@extrainningsoftball.com. As long as I see your email, you’ll get a reply.
Now, onward.
Coaching Carousel
These may prove to be famous last words, but I’ll write them anyway: It’s time to wrap up the 2022 college softball offseason.
With apologies to the less-than-swift Cal State Bakersfield, Alcorn State, and Florida A&M – as well as the newly-searching North Carolina A&T program – the coaching carousel has slowed to a bare crawl. Barring some unforeseen happening, even with those four head coaching positions still remaining, we can run final stats on this offseason’s happenings.
At last count, the tally is 42 Division 1 head coaching positions that changed hands. The number of assistant coaching turnover crosses the 150 mark.
There were some trends in this hiring cycle; there was a lot of what I refer to as “recycling” of coaches and less organic hiring of up-and-comers. At the same time, and in total fairness, there were also far fewer coaches who were willing to leave a good spot to simply leave for greener grass.
Five Power 5 head coaching jobs changed hands – Texas A&M led the cycle, with Arizona State, Texas Tech, Michigan, and Michigan State rounding out the ranks. Carol Hutchins‘ retirement at Michigan was a headlining move in late August, as the NCAA’s all-time wins leader stepped aside from the program she led for nearly four decades.
Among the assistant coaching ranks, notable changes were made at Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Duke, South Carolina, Missouri, Oklahoma State, UCF, and Texas A&M, among others.
Something that had been a trend in years past – sitting head coaches leaving to become assistant coaches again – was not as prevalent this year. A more common trend in this cycle was coaches who had been out of college softball for a time getting back in. The likes of Vann Stuedeman, Michelle Gardner, Jenn Salling, even Sahvanna Jaquish were all part of this year’s coaching carousel as assistants.
Transfer Portal
There were A LOT of transfers this year — that about covers it, right? The transfer portal was hopping yet-again this summer, with some programs being decimated by the portal and others rebuilding with experienced talent by the same measure.
Times were tough for programs like Alabama – who saw six players, including three starters and their solid #2 pitcher enter the portal – and Michigan, who lost their starting battery in surprising fashion. Even Arizona, coming off three consecutive Women’s College World Series appearances, saw two offensive stars enter the portal at the last possible moment, then wind up at their in-conference archrival.
Oklahoma added incredible talent via the portal this offseason, loading their roster with an All-American pitcher and three top-shelf sluggers. Oklahoma State also added for volume, with seven new players joining the Cowgirls, while UCLA added four new bodies, all from other schools inside the PAC-12.
It was a different discussion this summer surrounding the portal than in years past; some coaches and other involved parties have long been opposed to the “free agent”-like happenings that go through the portal, while others joined the dissension to the portal this year thanks to what was, in their view, some programs taking advantage of the portal to build so-called superteams.
Portal Changes
While not directly related to this summer’s portal happenings in softball, the NCAA did make changes to the portal-entering process in the early fall.
There are now specific windows during which players can enter the portal, eliminating the “anybody, anytime” methodology that the portal had had from its inception. Graduate transfers can still operate by the same procedures of old, unhampered by the transfer window regulations.
Realignment
Effective on July 1st, twenty-two (22) softball programs changed conference affiliations.
That number includes five schools that moved up to Division 1 from the D2 ranks. UCLA and USC (the Trojans don’t play softball, but we’ll mention them just this one time) also announced plans to join the Big 10 in the not-so-distant future, leaving the PAC-12 behind and creating a similar cascading effect to that caused by Oklahoma and Texas’ decision to join the SEC. The full effects of the UCLA/USC decision have not yet been determined, much less realized.
Realignment was not just a Division 1 issue this offseason; two programs (USC Beaufort and Thomas More) were approved to reclassify from NAIA to NCAA Division II, while another school and softball program (Roosevelt) earned provisional admittance into a Division II conference, part of the preliminary reclassification process.
Eight-time defending NJCAA Division III champions Rock Valley College also moved up to NJCAA D2, allowing the school to offer athletic scholarships for the first time and opening the door for a new champion at the JuCo D3 level for the first time in almost a decade.
A Review, now a Preview
You may have noticed a brief notation at the beginning of this column. Yes, our preseason coverage begins in one week. It’s barely even October, and we’re starting preseason college softball coverage? Correct. We’ll kick things off on October 10th and ride the train all the way into February.
By nature, I’m not a horribly expressive person. Usually very dry and, honestly, boring (I own it), I use that qualifier now because when I’m exuberant about something, I want you to be able to know it, even through the written word.
With that formality out of the way, y’all, I’m incredibly excited about what our preseason coverage has in store. There is a ton of content already in the queue, including some new things that have never been done before.
We have some special announcements coming, some brand-new content rollouts getting ready, and a new, fresher look to some things that have been part of our college softball coverage in previous years. Everything from our anticipated Conference Forecasts to some new mid-major focal points and in-depth team and player analysis; that’s just a sample size of what the next four months of college softball coverage have in store.
Also, in case you missed our announcement on Saturday, we’ve just added a new member to our team. Sara Pelegreen is going to lead up the day-to-day of our D2 and D3 coverage; I’ve done my best to cover Divisions II and III in the past, but adding Sara will give us someone who can be dedicated to covering those levels. That’s a move that we are extremely pumped about – that I’m excited about – and will also lead to expanded D2 and D3 during both the preseason and the regular season itself.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. May you find a lucky penny in a parking lot.
One more note that I want to make on the front end: Some of our preseason content will be free for all to read, but a good chunk of it will be available only for subscribers. You’ll always be able to read some of every article, but a subscription will be required to read everything in every article. Not everyone will like that, and that’s okay. Subscriptions are what gives us the ability to bring you four months’ worth of preseason college softball coverage, wall-to-wall regular season coverage, and postseason and offseason coverage like no other.
I’m biased, so me saying that I think a subscription is worth it doesn’t make a difference. What I will say, though, is that this level of college softball coverage and this depth of preseason coverage won’t be found anywhere else.
That’s a promise that I intend to hold up my end of.
— Justin McLeod
