I think the USF Tournament sold out last year. It's Feb 10-12 this year. Pro tip: If you call for tickets (1 800 GO BULLS) and press 1 to reach the ticket office, you will not hear ringing and it seems like the line is disconnected. But if you wait about five minutes into the silence, they pickup and you can purchase over the phone. The tickets are not currently available online. Go Gators!
They're back! (And so is my thumb) Stadium was open, so I went in and took a few pictures. They were setting up for practice. The scoreboard display is complete. They are still working in the back. In post #1116 I asked what the spot on the upper right was. @Porschegator speculated: My guess. Space for pictures of scrappygator and johnny_cakes. Alas, no such luck, or maybe it is good luck for everyone else.
Awesomeness! ============= For the purpose of ranking the Top 50 programs, we don’t care what happened in the 1970s or 80s — or even the 90s. That’s ancient history to a potential recruit in 2023. Tradition is nice, but it’s more important to establish a tradition of consistent winning in the past decade, and especially in the last five years. Our ultimate goal here is to identify the programs in the best shape right now, with an eye toward the next five to 10 years. So we began by awarding programs points for making regionals and having postseason success in the last five years, and a fewer amount of points for success between six and 10 years ago. That gave us a starting point; then national writers Tara Henry and Brady Vernon made adjustments based on evaluations of coaching staff quality and stability, facilities, scholarship/financial aid situation, conference dynamics, momentum and recruiting and player development proficiency. No. 50 UMBC No. 49 San Diego State No. 48 Ohio State No. 47 Saint Francis No. 46 Nebraska No. 45 Liberty No. 44 Texas State No. 43 Wichita State No. 42 McNeese No. 41 Cal State Fullerton No. 40 California No. 39 Fordham No. 38 Boston University No. 37 Wisconsin No. 36 BYU No. 35 South Florida No. 34 Oregon State No. 33 Stanford No. 32 UCF No. 31 Duke No. 30 Clemson No. 29 Ole Miss No. 28 Notre Dame No. 27 Virginia Tech No. 26 Mississippi State No. 25 JMU No. 24 Baylor No. 23 Minnesota No. 22 Arkansas No. 21 Northwestern No. 20 Missouri No. 19 Louisiana No. 18 Auburn No. 17 Texas A&M No. 16 Oklahoma State No. 15 Michigan No. 14 ASU No. 13 Oregon No. 12 Kentucky No. 11 LSU No. 10 Texas No. 9 Tennessee No. 8 Georgia No. 7 Washington No. 6 Arizona No. 5 Alabama No. 4 Florida State No. 3 UCLA No. 2 Florida No. 1 Oklahoma
One of the parameters was projected outlook over the next five years. If it was based solely on that it would be Gators by far. Get ready sports fans this Walton led team is about ready to start down a five year path of unparalleled success. It is going to be a fun ride.
I hope you're right. But with NIL impacting all sports you never know if schools like Oklahoma and UCLA can just go out and buy more talent. I read that Oklahoma gave grad transfer All American pitcher Alex Storako $50,000 and a new truck to come to them from Michigan. Florida, supposedly, had a good shot at getting her until the Sooners anted up.
A NCAA rule change earlier this week clamped down a bit on the portal -- basically making it one and done to avoid sitting out -- but NIL is really the worst thing to happen to college sports in a long time, imho. With there being no cap on NIL payments and a salary cap in the NFL and other professional sports, maybe we'll get to the point where athletes will stay for their entire college eligibility, lest they turn pro and take a pay cut.
Tickets for the Jacksonville University game (always a sellout) went on sale today: Jacksonville University | Athletics Ticketing - vs. Florida
Gators starting season where they left off. They are #5 in the preseason rankings. I'll take that. I wouldn't be surprised if they finished higher by the end of the season.
Here's the link to the pre-season Top 25. https://www.ncaa.com/news/softball/...oftball-rankings-preseason-top-25-d1-softball For Florida, the defense will be there as always; the offense should be really good, although we need to improve on the power numbers. The key will be pitching. Will Elizabeth Hightower be 100% healthy and will she be able to pitch the way she did in 2021? Will Lexie Delbrey take that giant leap to All American status that she was projected to be as a recruit? Will Rylee Trlicek improve so that she can be as effective as she was during her freshman (COVID) year? And will true freshman Olivia Gigante or grad transfer Samantha Bender be able to eat up meaningful innings in the circle. If we get quality pitching, this team can be special, IMO. If the pitching is only above average we will struggle against the top tier teams. Considering the classes that are coming in for next year and the year after, it's pretty amazing that in a "bridge" year we're starting out at #5.
Got my tickets to USF tournament the other day. Went to the JU website and game in Jacksonville is already sold out.
I posted ticket availability above within 15 minutes of when they first went on sale, but I had no idea they'd sell out in less than a week. It is a very small stadium. Next year I'll buy a dozen and act as middleman. Don't let the absence of a ticket stop you from coming. If I remember correctly, they have some pretty good "bring our own chair" free seating in the outfield. Last year, I think I sat on the coaching scaffolding in left field, so that's a possibility also.
Tons of BOOC outfield seating space available. The issue is very little nearby parking to the JU softball stadium. Park to the immediate right of the main gate, or go down the hill towards the St. Johns River to park and huff your way back.
I might as well get started early. I'll be calling for Mickey Dean to be fired if AU loses more than 5 or 6 total games this year..not counting the 2 AT Sooners. So anything under 10 is acceptable. Unless everyone gets hurt again, then nevermind..
