So the SEC has become a softball conference.
When the NCAA super regionals were set a record-tying nine SEC programs remained and six were hosting, including the No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks who will entertain No. 12 Duke.
With LSU going to Alabama, Mississippi State to Oklahoma and Georgia to Tennessee, the SEC will be vying for six of the Women’s College World Series slots.
While Nebraska is currently ranked No. 1, the SEC has No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 8 Tennessee, No. 10 Florida, No. 11 Georgia, No. 18 LSU and No. 20 Mississippi State in the top 25.
Texas A&M is No. 16 but was eliminated at home 9-1 by Arizona State.
Since 2016, when then-Athletic Director Jeff Long hired Courtney Deifel, the Razorbacks have had one losing season, her first, and have made the NCAA Tournament every year since with the exception of 2020 when the entire sports world came to a halt because of COVID-19.
This is Deifel’s fifth time taking the Razorbacks to the super regional round.
Deifel graduated from Cal-Berkeley with a degree in American business, but she immediately went into coaching.
She was a graduate assistant at Oklahoma, where she got her master’s degree, and then had subsequent assistant coaching stops at Maryland and Louisville. She returned to Maryland as the head coach in 2015.
After one season she jumped to the Razorbacks and has never looked back.
Arkansas is a feared competitor in a very tough SEC.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named NBA Most Valuable Player for a second consecutive when the voting was announced Sunday.
He and his Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA champions and on a course to repeat.
Gilgeous-Alexander connection to Arkansas goes deeper than having former Razorbacks and Fort Smith Northside standouts Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams as teammates.
A native of Hamilton, Canada, he finished his high school career at Hamilton Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, Tenn. He was a 4-star recruit who committed to Florida in November 2015, then decommitted 11 months later and finally picked Kentucky and, who else, John Calipari.
He started the season as a backup point guard, but by conference time was the starter. He was MVP of the SEC Tournament and he helped the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
Gilgeous-Alexander, a one-and-done, was drafted with the 11th pick of the first round by the Charlotte Hornets, who almost immediately traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers.
He played there a season before being traded to Oklahoma City, where he became a star.
Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged more than 30 points per game in each of the past four seasons.
Now that the NCAA has officially announced its basketball tournaments will expand to 76, it appears baseball and football would like to have larger tournament numbers as well.
It has been guessed that the College Football Playoff’s current 12-team field will expand after this coming season to 24 teams.
More than likely that would end the Power Four conference championship games.
The Big Ten, winner of the last three CFP championships as well as the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments last April, apparently is the one pushing for the expansion to 24.
TV may balk but they won’t walk, they will ante up to stay in the game.
The possible expansion of the football playoffs has brought up the old realignment argument, except this time the theory is 24-36 major programs will start their own football league.
Over the months and possible years as this plays out, the advice here is follow the money.