Majority Rule: WCWS Field Signals SEC Ascent
Wednesday, May 27, 2015 | Softball, Chris Harry
OKLAHOMA CITY -- All the signs around here say we're in Oklahoma, but if someone had been beamed into Thursday's second of two Women's College World Series press conferences at Hall of Fame Stadium they easily may have thought they were somewhere like, say, Birmingham, home to Southeastern Conference headquarters.
Or Baton Rouge.
Possibly Chattanooga.
Maybe even somewhere in the Sunshine State.
At the podium, side by side, sat LSU's Beth Torina, Auburn's Clint Myers, Tennessee's Ralph Weekly and Florida's Tim Walton. Together, the four coaches represented half the bracket of the WCWS, which opens Thursday. The first two games -- UF (55-6) vs. Tennessee (47-15) at noon (ET), followed by Auburn (54-9) vs. LSU (50-12) at 2:30 p.m. -- would have made for a killer semifinal round of the SEC Tournament last month. Actually, it almost did. Alabama, rather than LSU, reached the semis.
Oh, the Crimson Tide (47-13) are in OKC too, by the way. They're on the other side of the bracket with Oregon (51-6) and UCLA (50-10), of the Pac-12, and Michigan (56-6), by way of the Big Ten.
Beth Torina, Clint Myers, Ralph Weekly and UF's Tim Walton spoke at today's presser. Photo: Will Pantages
So that's five of eight teams, or 62.5 percent of the WCWS field. The SEC, as its been known to do, has created a monster. The SEC Network, of course, gets a big share of the credit for this, given the amount of air time the channel has provided for a sport that is gaining in popularity (and TV ratings) with each year.
“My first trip here was in 2008,” said Walton, who led the Gators to the program's first NCAA title last season and is back in the big event for the seventh time in eight years. “To see this much exposure, the expansion of this facility, and ESPN's coverage and all they do for our sport, we just thank you for that platform for our young ladies. This is a great place to end your season -- win or lose.”
Come Friday, one team from the all-SEC side is going to be two games deep into the winner's bracket, while another will be packing to go home. UF won the league's regular season crown by a half-game over Auburn, while the Tigers defeated the Volunteers 6-5 with a dramatic ninth-inning walk-off to capture the conference's postseason tournament.
All five SEC teams hosted (and won, obviously) regionals and Super regionals, with Auburn gaining its first WCWS berth in postseason history.
The coach who led the Tigers here is Clint Myers, who was a legend in both junior college baseball and softball at Central Arizona College before taking the softball post at Arizona State in 2005. He recalled Thursday a conversation he once had with icon Sue Enquist, winner of 11 national championships as both a player and head softball coach at UCLA, when he first entered the league. Myers thought it was curious the Pac-12 did not have a postseason tournament and asked Enquist why.
“We do have one,” Enquist replied. “It's called the College World Series.”
Bada-bing.
Well, after the SEC cannibalized itself during a brutal regular season and postseason tournament, 12 conference members reached the 64-team NCAA field and eight -- throw in Missouri, Kentucky and Georgia -- played in a Super Regional.
Myers, who won two national titles at ASU, shook up the college softball world when he jumped to Auburn in 2014. He knows where the power is now. He's in the middle of it.
For context: Before this year, the Pac-12 was the last league to send five teams to the WCWS. And that was way back in 1999.
“I had great memories and friends there,” Myers said of his former league. “The SEC is much better as far as strength of schedule and the ability to play a postseason opponent every weekend in conference play. It has bypassed -- it is a lot stronger -- and now the Pac-12 wants to be like us. Again, they're still a great conference and they have two great teams here. ... The SEC has really come on and they're going to be around a really long time.”
The SEC represents five of eight teams, or 62.5 percent of the WCWS field. Photo: Tim Casey
The question was even asked if the day might come when the WCWS is an All-SEC WCWS.
“I love the SEC, [but] I hope not,” Walton said. “I only say that because there should be other kids that have the same opportunities our kids do. I don't think that would be great for the game nationwide.”
The UF coach is probably right, but that wasn't the question.
Could it happen?
Could it happen in a league that already has the reigning NCAA champion, plus another (Alabama) from just three years ago? Could it happen for a league that packs its football stadiums each fall, which in turn packs the conference coffers and allows an entity like the SEC Network to thrive in the region and thus market more teams, coaches and players?
“Our league is amazing,” Torina said. “It's nice that everyone is starting to understand what everybody has to go through on a daily basis, especially the young kids in this league; they have to play against all these people every day, fail a lot and learn how to bounce back. It takes a lot to compete in the SEC everyday.”
Well? Could it?
“The more kids we get like that ... the more I can say anything is possible.”
