Patty Gasso explains Oklahoma's challenges when scheduling opponents

After winning three consecutive national championships in softball, other teams are not lining up to face Oklahoma nowadays.

The Sooners finished the 2023 season 61-1 and stormed through the NCAA Softball Tournament to not just win their third straight, but also set a record for the best winning percentage by softball team in Div. 1 history, coming out victorious in 98.4% of their games, including the title. So when the season started up early this spring, not very many teams were chomping at the bit to play OU.

However, the scheduling aspect is about to change drastically for Oklahoma, who is playing their final season in the Big 12 before migrating to the SEC, according to head coach Patty Gasso.

“I mean, if you’re paying attention, you’re knowing that our our program is about to be changing dramatically,” she told reporters when asked about scheduling challenges. Recently, though, it’s been tough to book opponents, especially to come to Norman for what are almost certain to be losses.

“But we still — you call and you give big incentives to come. So I mean, you’re really trying to pay people to come play. But once they get here, it’s a wow factor for them. So it’s tough. Scheduling is tough.”

However, Gasso notes that “it’s a little bit different now as we go into the SEC” since the format is a bit different, which she explained.

“It’s, you know, usually I have two to three additional weekends where I’m trying to get teams to play. So now we’re going to probably go first two weekends on the road, and then the next two weekends at home, and then we’re in conference, so it’s quite different. It’s a little bit easier.”

Even though Gasso expects she’ll have an easier time piecing together the non-conference slate once the Sooners move to the SEC, she knows that the program is still going to have to make some pretty enticing offers to get teams to play Oklahoma, especially at home.

“But you still got to pay the money out and really add a few extra meals in there or something just to get them to say yes.”

So nobody really wants to challenge the three-time champions, at least not without some major incentives. But that’s the price of being the best, apparently. For now, though, Oklahoma is ready to begin their postseason run and quest for a fourth straight national title.