Extra Inning
Softball
Rankings FAQ

Yes. To be considered for any EIS ranking, athletes must be nominated. Every nominated player is evaluated by the Rankings Committee and becomes eligible for region and national rankings. You can submit a nomination directly on our site.

Every athlete who is nominated is guaranteed a region ranking and will be considered for national rankings. Results are published on our rankings leaderboard, complete with a photo and bio for each athlete.

Parents are welcome to submit nominations, though EIS encourages families to collaborate with the coach first to ensure the most accurate and complete submission.

A complete nomination should include the athlete's key information along with verified statistics. Nominations require screenshots from GameChanger or another verified statistics platform to help maintain the integrity of the process.

Providing complete, accurate, and detailed information up front gives the Rankings Committee the strongest foundation to work from during its evaluation. For a full breakdown of what's required, visit our nomination criteria page.

Nominations are open for one month, and rankings are published roughly one month after that. During that window, the committee reviews nominations, statistics, schedules, tournament performance, video, recommendations, and additional research before finalizing rankings. You can view upcoming dates on our rankings schedule page.

No. Once rankings are published, they remain final. While factual errors may occasionally require correction, athlete placements are not changed because of outside influence or public disagreement. Consistency is essential to maintaining trust in the rankings process.

Every nominated athlete is evaluated through EIS's proprietary SERV™ Methodology: Software, Evaluate, Research, and Verify. Software organizes and analyzes performance data, evaluation is conducted by the Rankings Committee and regional leaders, research builds a fuller picture of each athlete using additional sources, and verification confirms accuracy before rankings are finalized.

No. Statistics are an important part of the evaluation, but they're only one piece of the overall picture. EIS also considers competition level, strength of schedule, athletic ability, positional impact, consistency, long-term projection, video evaluation, recommendations, and other supporting information submitted through the nomination process.

Not on its own. EIS evaluates schedules, competition level, tournament participation, and performance history together, so a stat line is never evaluated in isolation.

Unlike some competitors who are owned by large organizations, Extra Inning Softball is an independent, family-owned company. We've built our team by hiring women who played and coached softball at the college level. Collectively, our staff brings more than 71 years of playing experience to the evaluation process.

EIS collaborates with over 100 organizational leaders nationwide to help ensure accurate and comprehensive rankings.

Because methodologies vary between companies, ranking numbers should never be compared without understanding how they were determined. Families are encouraged to evaluate the process behind any rankings system, not just the final number.

Every nominated athlete receives a region ranking. National rankings are earned: athletes must qualify through the evaluation process to be placed in one of three national tiers.

The national tiers are the Extra Elite 100 (rankings 1–100), the Extra Select (101–200), and the Extra Prospect (201–300). Within all three tiers, every qualifying athlete earns an individual placement.

Unlike other ranking services, EIS does not tie players. Our goal is to help college coaches, and clear, individual placements give coaches a more accurate and useful picture of where each athlete stands, without a crowd of players sharing the same number.

Eliminating ties also helps avoid conflicts within the softball community among players, parents, and coaches. Every ranked athlete earns an individual placement through the SERV™ Methodology and a comprehensive evaluation process. Every ranking represents months of research, discussion, verification, and collaboration.

Yes. In addition to overall regional and national rankings, EIS evaluates athletes by position, giving families and coaches a clearer picture of how an athlete compares to others who play the same role. A top-tier shortstop and a top-tier pitcher bring very different skill sets to the field.

Our position rankings are:

• Pitcher
• Catcher
• Middle Infielder
• Corner Infielder
• Outfielder

EIS ranks athletes based on the state in which they reside, grouping states into six regions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, Mountain, and West. See the full breakdown on our region map page.

Our youngest athletes, including 8U and 10U, are evaluated for EIS's three-tier Futures Watchlist (Futures Premier, Select, or Prospect) rather than receiving a numerical ranking at this stage.

There is no cost to have your athlete evaluated. However, because of the extensive time and resources it takes to evaluate athletes, we ask the community to support us through membership to Extra Inning Softball. Members can view rankings outcomes on our rankings leaderboard.

Members also get a MyEIS360™ Athlete Profile at no extra cost. Each profile lets an athlete share all her recognition and accolades, and anyone can view it without a membership.

Yes. College coaches receive a free Extra Inning Softball membership. To get set up, coaches just need to email customerservice@extrainningsoftball.com from their school email account.

There are two ways: first, make sure your athlete is ranked. Second, set up her MyEIS360™ Athlete Profile, which tracks her EIS rankings over time, can be edited by her family, and is shareable on social media. Profiles are completely free to view, even without an EIS membership.

Beyond national and region rankings, EIS provides tournament performance rankings free of charge to tournament directors who want their athletes ranked for a specific event. This gives those tournaments an added layer of recognition and helps athletes get noticed beyond the standard nomination cycle.