We’re in the midst of one of the great Cinderella runs in college sports history
If you’re not among the millions of people watching the NCAA Softball Tournament, you’re missing out on one of the greatest Cinderella runs in the history of college sports.
The unseeded James Madison softball team is one win away from the championship final of the Women’s College World Series. No unseeded team has ever made it to this point.
The Dukes swept their way through the Knoxville regional two weeks ago, pummeled No. 8 Mizzou in the deciding game of last week’s super regional, then upset No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 5 Oklahoma State in the opening rounds of the Women’s College World Series on Thursday and Friday.
They’ll have two chances to beat Oklahoma (again) later today. If they win either game, they advance to the best-of-three championship final scheduled for Monday-Wednesday.
JMU’s unlikely run is already the best in NCAA softball history. The only comparable run on the men’s side is the 2008 Fresno State baseball team that won it all.
But there’s a huge difference between this JMU team and that Fresno State team, and the power brokers in college football should take note.
Should JMU’s run really be a surprise?
The ‘08 Fresno State baseball team went 33–27 in the regular season. The Bulldogs were — deservedly — positioned in the bracket the way a 16 seed would be positioned in basketball. No one could have possibly seen their championship run coming.
That’s not the case for this JMU team, though. The Dukes went 35–1 during the regular season, but weren’t one of the 16 teams given a seed and home-field advantage for the regional round. Instead, they were positioned in the bracket the way an 11 seed would be positioned in basketball.
After the way they’ve played this postseason — they’re 7–1 with five wins against teams ranked in the top 8 in the country — it makes you wonder what the seeding committee was thinking when creating this bracket.
The Dukes don’t play in a great softball conference, but they still won 97 percent of their games this season. Pitcher Odicci Alexander, the star of this team’s run, is now 20–1. Hindsight is 20/20, but this team clearly should have been given a better seed.
College football, take note
Does this JMU team remind you of any football teams?
How about the 2017 UCF team that went undefeated and beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl?
The Knights’ season ended there because they weren’t given a spot in the College Football Playoff. UCF declared itself the 2017 national champion, which was met with a lot of laughs from other fan bases, but who knows what would have happened if the Knights actually got to play in a playoff?
Every once in a while, a JMU comes along. It could happen in football, but we’ll never know unless that team actually has access to the playoff.
Unlike the ’08 Fresno State baseball team that had a mediocre season before making a Cinderella run, the Dukes won games all season long but didn’t get any respect. At least they got an opportunity to take a shot at the best teams in the country. Now they’re three wins away from winning a national championship.
If you enjoyed this newsletter …
While we’re on the topic of NCAA softball, make sure to read this New York Times morning newsletter.
My awesome fiancée Alex (who, by the way, won our family March Madness pool) sent this to me on Friday. It shines a light on some of the disparities between the NCAA baseball tournament and the NCAA softball tournament, despite the fact that the both tournaments sell out and garner nearly-equal TV ratings.
After the disparities we saw with the NCAA men’s and basketball tournaments a few months ago, this is incredibly disappointing but hardly surprising.
Thanks so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you have thoughts and feedback, I’d love to hear from you. Every newsletter will be posted to this website, so you can comment there. You can also email me directly at this address.
If you stumbled across this newsletter during your web travels, sign up here!
