Wednesday’s start of the Women’s College World Series championship closes a chapter of Oklahoma softball, as it does for longtime conference rival and WCWS opponent Texas.
Indeed, it marks the end an era of college athletics as a whole.
The best-of-three series between the No. 1 national seed Longhorns and No. 2 Sooners is the last time the two programs face off head to head, in any sport, as Big 12 Conference opponents. Both Oklahoma and Texas will head to the Southeastern Conference next month.
REQUIRED READING: Mussatto: OU softball isn’t ready to give up its Women’s College World Series crown yet
Of course, the two longtime Big 12 teams catalyzed the era that college athletics is soon to enter when the new NCAA calendar year begins next month on July 1: conference realignment.
After the Sooners and the Longhorns broke away from the Big 12 — of which they were founding members — the Pac-12 Conference began to dissolve as USC and UCLA made a break for the Big Ten Conference. Oregon and Washington followed the L.A.-based schools to the Big Ten, whereas Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado then defected to the Big 12. Stanford and Cal later accepted invitations to the ACC.
As such, the Pac-12, one of the most storied conferences in the history of college softball, saw its last head-to-head matchup in the sport in Sunday’s WCWS elimination game between UCLA and Stanford. Curiously, Oklahoma and Texas had a hand in creating the final Pac-12 softball game in history: The Longhorns beat Stanford 4-0 in the opening round to send them to the loser’s bracket, whereas Oklahoma beat the Bruins 1-0 in the second round to force the elimination game.
Both the Sooners and Longhorns will now look to end their tenure in the Big 12 on a high note, while also creating some softball history: Patty Gasso’s squad aims to become the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/oklahoma-texas-join-sec-wcws-110504451.html
Author : The Oklahoman
Publish date : 2024-06-05 11:05:04
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