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It’s time to put Sooner softball in the pantheon of college dynasties.
When we talk about dynasties in college sports, we talk about a few programs: Alabama football, UConn women’s basketball, Duke men’s basketball.
Well, it’s time we add another dynasty to the group: the University of Oklahoma’s softball program. Since 2010, the argument can be made that the Sooners’ softball program is THE most successful college sports program in America.
Let’s start with the stats. Since 2010, the Sooners have won seven national championships, including each of the last four titles. For comparison, Alabama football has won four titles total since 2010, as have UConn men’s basketball in that same time period. In fact, the only major college sports program that comes close to matching Oklahoma women’s softball is UConn women’s basketball, winning five titles since 2010, including three straight. But even then, it pales in the sheer dominance of Sooner softball. People have accused the Sooners’ softball program of being too dominant, and to that the Sooners just decide to keep on winning. Head coach Patty Gasso has been in the dugout for the last 31 years for the Sooners, but recently the Sooners have been on a run that is unrivaled in college sports. Since 2020, the Sooners have won 235 games, 41 in the postseason. In those four years, they’ve lost the same amount of postseason games as they have won the Women’s College World Series. 21 wins in the WCWS in that period, pure dominance from that perspective.
What stands out about Oklahoma softball is the ability to adapt and adjust, while keeping the standard for quality play high. Gasso is able to keep Oklahoma at the top even in the Name, Image and Likeness era of college sports, where roster turnover is almost an inevitability. Yet, at Oklahoma they remain at the pinnacle of the sport as the sport changes around them. The Sooners are always on the transfer portal, using every advantage they can to remain at the top. First team All-Pac 12 outfielder Abby Dayton is at the top of this list, but there’s even more top tier players coming to Norman to play for the Sooners, namely pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who came from Oklahoma State last year. The Sooners don’t just build through the portal, however. A large majority of the Sooners’ team is homegrown, racking up top recruiting classes year over year. Icons of the sport like Jocelyn Alo, Riley Boone and more have spent years in the Oklahoma development program, waiting for their chance to start.
Dr. Katie Lever wrote in Matt Brown’s Extra Points about the Sooner softball program, and how they maintain their position at the top of the college sports world. One of the ways that they do this is through an offense that simply smashes every opponent they face. They swing for the fences, and when they do, they’re often connecting. In 250 games since 2020, the Sooners have hit 555 home runs, almost 200 more than the amount of runs they’ve given up in that same period. In 2023, the Sooners’ softball team run-ruled 27 of their 55 opponents, including every super regional opponent they faced. This isn’t just beating all the best teams; this is demolishing everyone else in the sport. There’s a gap between Oklahoma and the rest of the college sports world, and it’ll only get bigger as Gasso maintains her spot.
As Oklahoma moves to the SEC in the upcoming academic year, the road will be harder for the Sooners to maintain their gap over the rest of the sport. The SEC is home to some of the top programs in the sport—using D1 softball’s final top 25 poll, five of the top ten softball teams in the country are in the SEC outside of Oklahoma, two of them are also in the top five with Oklahoma. Along with the move to the SEC comes playing against teams that are consistently near the top in spending when it comes to NIL, making recruiting even more difficult. However, if there’s one thing that the sports world has come to know over the last decade-plus, it’s the Oklahoma softball will still find their way to Omaha, smashing homers and barriers throughout the process.
