Gopher Softball 2024

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LarBear said:
Is there anyway to watch Fall ball if you cannot get to the stadium (Physical Reasons)
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The answer is apparently a resounding No. Unless the team does in-house videos, which could be made public.
 

Hrothgar said:
After watching Fall Ball, I still don't know what to expect from the Gophers in 2024. Will Piper please find one more outstanding hitter in the late fall portal! Not good to see a hitless bottom of the batting order for yet another season.
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That’s not going to happen. Our roster is already too numerous.
 


rugger14 said:
Time to get some discussion about next year started. I am looking forward to seeing what folks are thinking about 2024. Ski-U-Mah!
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I’m curious about how the B1G will work the schedule after this season. Currently we only play 8 of 13 teams. Will this change when they’re 17 possible opponents?
 

Nipomo 56 said:
I’m curious about how the B1G will work the schedule after this season. Currently we only play 8 of 13 teams. Will this change when they’re 17 possible opponents?
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Since there will be an odd number of teams, I am assuming the format will need to change and that the 'paired doubleheaders' will probably go away. They could consider going to 8 conference weekends, but because there is odd number of teams, that means there would need to be at least 4 conference series as early as week 5 of season; they may want to keep week 5 open for teams to get into tournaments and leave it at 21 conference games over 8 weekends.
 


Would they add multiple mid week DH to include more teams in the schedule?
 

Anyone have insight on how good they think the 2024 recruiting class, that just signed, is?
 

Nipomo 56 said:
Would they add multiple mid week DH to include more teams in the schedule?
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I think that is very unlikely for travel reasons. The paired doubleheaders are currently an option in large part because of geography. The longest trip between the pairings is only a little over 5 hours by bus. However, the western members will require flights.

If they want to have more members play each other, besides moving to 8 conference series, another option might be to incorporate some type of pod format, where each weekend there is a three team pod at one of the members (where maybe they play 4 or 5 games). That would also address the issue of having to find opponents for 'bye' weekends.

Another issue is if they want to have protected opponents (e.g. Minnesota plays Wisconsin every year, Oregon vs. Washington, etc.).

Probably a lot of coaches in several sports across many conferences are trying to sort out their schedule formats.
 

SomeGopherFan said:
I think that is very unlikely for travel reasons. The paired doubleheaders are currently an option in large part because of geography. The longest trip between the pairings is only a little over 5 hours by bus. However, the western members will require flights.

If they want to have more members play each other, besides moving to 8 conference series, another option might be to incorporate some type of pod format, where each weekend there is a three team pod at one of the members (where maybe they play 4 or 5 games). That would also address the issue of having to find opponents for 'bye' weekends.

Another issue is if they want to have protected opponents (e.g. Minnesota plays Wisconsin every year, Oregon vs. Washington, etc.).

Probably a lot of coaches in several sports across many conferences are trying to sort out their schedule formats.
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It makes for fewer home weekends but is a whole lot easier to just play a bunch of games at one park. Ticket sales pretty negligible for revenue sharing with how small most of the parks are if each team just gets to host 3 mega-weekends per year for conference
 



Ragnor said:
Anyone have insight on how good they think the 2024 recruiting class, that just signed, is?
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Pitcher Natalie Susa was getting a lot of hype early last Spring but she had an ACL tear while base running later in the Spring. I hope she fully recovers.
 



ClassOf98Gopher said:
gophersports.com

Gophers Welcome Four on National Signing Day - University of Minnesota Athletics

Joining the Gophers' squad next season are Cameron Chard (Belle Plaine, Minn.), Tinley Easton (Lexington, Ky.), Jae Cosgriff (Livermore, Calif.), and Natalie...
gophersports.com gophersports.com
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"They are the best of the best at their respective positions and will help us continue to compete at the absolute highest level," said head coach Piper Ritter. "I fully expect that we will see an immediate impact on our program from this group. We are proud of all they have accomplished up to this point in their careers and we cannot wait to see what lies ahead for them as a part of our program."

Wow! Is that true? Gophers softball is a sleeper, popular sport. People love to come out to games. I know there's a wait list for season tickets. I hope they do great this season!
 



SomeGopherFan said:
Since there will be an odd number of teams, I am assuming the format will need to change and that the 'paired doubleheaders' will probably go away. They could consider going to 8 conference weekends, but because there is odd number of teams, that means there would need to be at least 4 conference series as early as week 5 of season; they may want to keep week 5 open for teams to get into tournaments and leave it at 21 conference games over 8 weekends.
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I don't believe USC has softball so only adds 3 teams?
 


The Clearwater Invitational released its schedule today. Great opportunity to play some very well-respected teams and bolster our RPI.

Gophers Clearwater opponents:

2/16 - Washington
2/16 - Georgia Tech
2/17 - Stanford
2/17 - Georgia
2/18 - LSU

Historically ESPN has been a big player in this tournament, and it is heavily promoted on all the softball podcasts. If that is still the case in 2024, we may get a game or two on one of the ESPN channels, and all the games would at least be available for streaming via ESPN+.
 

rwlarson said:
The Clearwater Invitational released its schedule today. Great opportunity to play some very well-respected teams and bolster our RPI.

Gophers Clearwater opponents:

2/16 - Washington
2/16 - Georgia Tech
2/17 - Stanford
2/17 - Georgia
2/18 - LSU

Historically ESPN has been a big player in this tournament, and it is heavily promoted on all the softball podcasts. If that is still the case in 2024, we may get a game or two on one of the ESPN channels, and all the games would at least be available for streaming via ESPN+.
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Gopher pitchers better be ready to compete or else that weekend is going to have some 5-6 inning games.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
Gopher pitchers better be ready to compete or else that weekend is going to have some 5-6 inning games.
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Gophers may be wise having 6 pitchers on the roster, but more than pitching I worry about potentially having a punchless bottom half of the hitting order.
 

RWlarson comments: Historically ESPN has been a big player in this tournament, and it is heavily promoted on all the softball podcasts. If that is still the case in 2024, we may get a game or two on one of the ESPN channels, and all the games would at least be available for streaming via ESPN+.

I'm not a techie guy at all with all this. Help me out.
1) Unfortunately I cannot afford everything in site so that I can see every game whether it be football, basketball or softball etc.
2) My wife got hooked on softball last year so trying to help her out. For softball, are the majority of the games on Big 10, or Big 10 plus? Are most of the non-conference games on Big 10 or do they kind of wait until the season starts?
3) I see that RWlarson has indicated that ESPN is also a player in all this. So would you need streaming with ESPN plus also at times during the season?
4) Or is this a mix bag as well like football where they are on multiple channels?
 

Generally, the home school (via its conference affiliation and the media rights holders for the conference) determines what media platform the game will be on. For Big 10 conference games and home non-conference games, the majority will be on BTN+, with a few on BTN (e.g. last year, 5 of these games for Gophers were on BTN). The conference tourney will also be on BTN.

For the other non-conference games/tournaments, it depends on the host school (where there is one), or the tournament organizer if there is no host school. For the former, the games where the Gophers play the host will probably be streamed on the conference media platform, but the other "neutral site" games can be spotty - sometimes a YouTube link or sometimes nothing.

For 2024, here are the Gophers non-conference road games:

Feb 9-11: San Diego State tourney. (Mountain West conference). Conference has an app with free streaming, so maybe the Aztec game will be on that. Other games, ???

Feb 16-18: Clearwater event. Sponsored by ESPN, so all should be on ESPN/2/U/+

Feb 23-25: North Texas tourney. (American Athletic conference). ESPN+ possibly for Mean Green game. Other games, ???

Mar 1-3: North Carolina-Charlotte tourney (American Athletic conference) Similar to North Texas above

Mar 5: at North Carolina-Greensboro Southern conference). Likely ESPN+

Mar 7-9: Clemson tourney (ACC). The games versus Tigers should be on ACCNX, which is free on the ESPN app if you already get ACC Network through your TV provider. Other games ???

Mar 15-17: South Carolina tourney (SEC). The game vs. Gamecocks should be on SECN+, which is free on the ESPN app if you already get SEC Network through your TV provider. Other games ???

Usually Gopher website or social media on X will include streaming links where they are available.

Finally, NCAA tournament will be on ESPN platform (ESPN/2/U/+) for regionals, with usually super regionals and beyond being just on ESPN/2/U

Hope this helps
 

It does. One thing I'm confused about. If you have Big 10 +. Will a Big 10 be on + or is that a separate service? Thanks for your help so far.
 

Big 10 Plus is a subscription-based streaming service. Last I checked, it was $10 per month option for a single school (i.e. all Gopher events), or there is a sport-specific option (i.e. all Big 10 softball games for the season, not just Gophers) that I think was more (40 dollars iirc).

These are often produced by the students, so just a caution that the production value of BIG+ events will not be the same as those on Big 10 Network itself (...camera work, commentators, replays, etc can sometimes be a bit rough).

The Big 10 Network will publish the list of games they are televising closer to the season, and then everything else (again, home games for Big10 teams) should be on BIG+.
 

SomeGopherFan said:
Big 10 Plus is a subscription-based streaming service. Last I checked, it was $10 per month option for a single school (i.e. all Gopher events), or there is a sport-specific option (i.e. all Big 10 softball games for the season, not just Gophers) that I think was more (40 dollars iirc).

These are often produced by the students, so just a caution that the production value of BIG+ events will not be the same as those on Big 10 Network itself (...camera work, commentators, replays, etc can sometimes be a bit rough).

The Big 10 Network will publish the list of games they are televising closer to the season, and then everything else (again, home games for Big10 teams) should be on BIG+.
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Thanks for the information. I'm not going to get petty about the students production. I appreciate them trying, learning, and I'm able to watch the game.
 



ClassOf98Gopher said:
I feel zero emotional connection to UCLA and Washington.

All those programs will do is deprive the Gophers of softball championships.
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Agree with the first part, not willing to concede the second. New money, and power 2 prestige gives Gophers an opportunity that they must use and run with.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
I feel zero emotional connection to UCLA and Washington.

All those programs will do is deprive the Gophers of softball championships.
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I have a negative emotional connection with Washington. It seems like the Gophs get sent there every other year in the playoffs.
 

Panthadad2 said:
I have a negative emotional connection with Washington. It seems like the Gophs get sent there every other year in the playoffs.
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Good news the selection committee will not want to send a team against a conference foe. In addition, having two high ranked teams will help the rpi. Bad news of course is it will be much harder to finish on top of the conference.
 

NextYear_76 said:
Bad news of course is it will be much harder to finish on top of the conference.
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And that so happens to be the measure that is applicable to a northern team like Minnesota; and therefore the only measure that matters in the stick and ball sports of ncaa college baseball and softball.
 

And playing against exciting teams in warm weather is an appealing reason to join the Gophers. It's a great place to be. More boats rise.
 

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