Shortly after Missouri softball opened its season with back-to-back weekends in Florida, head Tigers softball coach Larissa Anderson made headlines across the college sports landscape. She became the latest in a long line of coaches who have advocated for the college softball and baseball seasons to be moved back, and for good reason – both sports begin play in the first half of February, a time of year when it is much too cold to do anything outdoors.
Mizzou softball, along with most teams other than those on the west coast or in hot climates like Florida, Texas or Arizona, spent the bulk of the first month of its season away from home. So, too, did Indiana softball and baseball. Indiana softball played its home opener on March 7, one month after its season began. Baseball played at home just twice in its first 17 games and is set for its first home series on March 14, exactly one month after opening day.
The academic calendar gives an inherent advantage to college softball and baseball teams located in the warmest parts of the United States. In the diamond sports, there is little that coaches and players can do to replace live reps. Simulated game action is the best way for players to improve, but teams outside parts of the country that experience triple-digit summer heat are rarely able to practice in the elements in the weeks between the start of the academic semester and the beginning of the season.
This dynamic means that, come opening day, most teams in conferences the SEC and the Sun Belt along with the southernmost ACC teams (Florida State, Clemson, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Duke, Miami, Georgia Tech) are generally better prepared than teams in conferences like the Big Ten. It is also a big draw for recruits – the nation’s most talented prospects nearly always end up at schools in the south. Consequently, teams from the warmest parts of the country tend to dominate college baseball year after year.
The SEC has won the last five consecutive College World Series and has numerous teams that could win the league’s sixth straight title this season – 12 SEC teams are ranked in the top 25. All top-five teams are members of the SEC, which has claimed 11 of the 24 national titles since 2000. Save for perennial anomaly Oregon State’s three titles (2006, 2007, 2018), every national champion since 1988 (Stanford) has come from either south of the Mason-Dixon Line or the southwest.
The Big Ten has not won a national championship since Ohio State hoisted the trophy in 1966, though Michigan appeared in the championship series in 2019 and Indiana made it to Omaha in 2013. The Hoosiers have not been back. At face value, moving the season back should be the easiest situation, but numerous outside factors make it difficult. From the aforementioned academic calendar normally running through early May and the MLB All-Star Break taking place shortly after the end of the College World Series, the biggest hurdles are out of the NCAA’s control.
Players who graduate already stay with their teams for nearly two months if they make it to Omaha. Additionally, if baseball season were to be moved back by one month, conference tournaments would take place in late June, hanging collegiate summer teams like those in the Cape Cod League and the Appalachian League out to dry. These leagues are full of non-draft eligible college players and they usually play games through all of June and July, giving these younger college players valuable time to improve. Summer teams also provide internship opportunities for countless college students. Altering the calendar in this way would likely cause these teams to cease to exist.
Approximately 75% of college programs nationwide fall victim to winter’s frigid temperatures, and with the situation so difficult to resolve, it is difficult to see a future where the aforementioned southern teams cease to dominate. The natural advantage provided by warmer weather serves them well when the action heats up at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
