The Pacific 12's motto " Conference of Champions " has applied particularly well to softball. Member schools have captured 24 (UCLA 12, Arizona 8, ASU 2, Cal 1, Washington 1) of the 40 NCAA titles awarded in the sport.  However, the 2024 Pac 12 season, which begins this weekend, will be the last.* UCLA, Washington, Oregon, and (non-softball) USC will be leaving for the Big Ten; Arizona, ASU, Utah, and (non-softball) Colorado will head to the Big 12; and Stanford and Cal will join the Atlantic Coast Conference. Oregon State will be the only remaining softball school, as Washington State does not field a team in the sport. As shown in the following graph, the three teams going to the Big Ten (UCLA, Washington, and Oregon) were consistently among the best in the Pac 12 over the past decade, with the exception of a Duck downturn when Coach Mike White moved to the University of Texas (the grey bar denotes the cancelled COVID-19 season in 2020). Stanford and Utah have been r

Oklahoma's enormously long winning streak had to end sometime. However, it seemed unlikely that an opponent with a losing record would be the one to knock off the Sooners. So is the mystery of sports that Louisiana-Lafayette, which brought a 9-12 record into today's game with OU, would do the unthinkable. The final score was 7-5 Ragin' Cajuns, in eight innings, ending the Sooners' win streak at 71 games ( box score ). ULL led 4-2 as OU came up in the bottom of the seventh. The Sooners quickly found themselves with two out and a runner on second. Oklahoma had been in precarious spots before during this streak, but always managed to pull through. Lightning struck again today -- for a while at least -- as OU put together two singles (the latter with an ULL error added on) to tie the game ( video ).  In the past, Oklahoma would have shut ULL down in the top of the eighth and scored the winning run in the bottom half. Not today. A single, OU error, and another single loaded