Originally Posted by
VObserver
The thing about conventional wisdom is that it is rarely conventional and almost never wise.
At least this year [in softball] no G5 was excluded from the NCAA Tournament for arbitrary reasons; and the only G5 that possibly should have hosted was Louisiana, and we didn't get hosed on that front as badly as a P5 [Baylor].
There isn't a college softball coach in the country who didn't know who Mihyia Davis, or for that matter Lauren Allred, is well before Ms. Davis was placed on the AA team. If someone is coming for Mihyia, they didn't decide to do so because some sportswriters put her on an AA team.
One additional observation. In softball, Louisiana is not just another G5 program, we are an ELITE program which happens to be in the perennially highest rated G5 conference in the country. Even with the disadvantages of being a "G5 school", Louisiana is ranked by D1 Softball as the 19th best program in Division 1. We have been in every NCAA Tournament in this century; we have reached at least the Regional Championship game for 15 consecutive tournaments; we have nearly 1900 wins as a program; we have as many NCAA WCWS appearances as Northwestern, Texas or LSU, and more than Georgia or Baylor.
Girls who leave here for a 'better program' have a very small pool of more attractive alternatives.