Softball Crisis in 2025?

[wheresmycar]

Looking at large Orgs, and how many kids they have playing at the colligate level, and something caught my attention.

EC Bullets for example, had 93 kids playing college ball in the 2021 class.
The 2022 class was 52 (45% drop).
They don't have any 2023s listed yet, but I feel that class will be even smaller.

TX Bombers is simillar....

Class of 2021 had 86 kids playing college.
Class of 2022 had only 39 (Over 50% smaller)
No 2023s listed again.... which is weird, cuz that class should be nearing end of their recruitment cycle.

The Covid bonus year runs out in 2025... If the recruitment classes continue to shrink, many programs are going to have problems filling their rosters after that...

I suppose this problem is not limited to Softball either...

 

[Traps71]

Is active use of the transfer portal also affecting these numbers...more shuffling of athletes already within the system that dampens need for fresh recruits?

 

[_MIA_]

One would assume college coaches can count and will adjust accordingly..

 

[Westwind]

That’s pretty interesting.

Fwiw, I have noticed what I believe is a real drop off of the quality of softball locally in both hs and tournament ball. I’m shocked how bad it can be. I had theories about it and considered it a “local” issue.

I have been blaming 5th year players, the portal and NIL for what we are seeing in college ball but I think that may only be part of the problem.

Again… interesting, will be curious to see other comments.

 

[Westwind]

One would assume college coaches can count and will adjust accordingly..

Ha! Sometimes I’m not so sure.

Some coaches seem to be very undisciplined shoppers!

Or maybe their plan is to recruit by hair color and I just am not smart enough to understand it.

 

[_MIA_]

Ha! Sometimes I’m not so sure.

Some coaches seem to be very undisciplined shoppers!

Or maybe their plan is to recruit by hair color and I just am not smart enough to understand it.

Recruiting bad fits/players and not recruiting enough players to field a team are two different things..

 

[YOCOACH]

Let's not forget that many organizations also claim players that signed their NILs before coming to play for them. Maybe they're just starting to report real numbers...or maybe it's just the way it truly is.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Now, this is most likely anecdotal evidence, but in my area, we are experiencing a significant drop in numbers of players in softball. I attribute it to several factors, lacrosse drawing players away being a huge one.

In 2016, our LL had 7 teams with 13-14 players each in the softball majors division. By 2017, they were down to 4 teams, and by 2018, it was 3 teams in the majors. The last year my HS had both a JV and varsity team was 2018. Since that time, we have struggled to get 16 girls per year playing softball. We had somewhat of a baby boom between 1997-2004, and the numbers of students has dropped every year. In fact, my daughter's graduation had 185 students this year, but the 1st grade class has 130 kids.

Considering softball is becoming more popular across the country, this probably isn't the reason. It's a huge issue here in the northeast, though.

I would say teams expanding and others breaking off has watered down the talent from the formerly dominant organizations.

 

[radness]

The NCAA would make another bizarre adjustment if they needed to

 

[Rolling Hard]

Good news 2026 they will be desperate. Timing is everything. LOL