Softball Releases 2016 Schedule
The Michigan softball team dropped their 2016 slate today, and as usual the non-conference schedule is brutal. The Maize & Blue will spend 24 games on the road before getting their first taste of home field advantage at the Wilpon Complex. There are a number of teams who made deep post-season runs last year on the schedule, headlined by Oklahoma, Florida State, and best of all, defending-national-champions Florida. As always, the Wolverines will be tested hard in the early going, but that also means they'll have many opportunities to prove themselves to the pollsters & selection committee. The non-conference schedule is always nerve-wracking for us, but this year I have so much confidence in the team that I'm not too worried.
After the brutal road trip, Michigan gets a pair of tune-ups against Eastern at Wilpon before diving into the Big Ten slate. Once again, the yahoos at B10 headquarters have given us a wonky schedule. We don't face Minnesota at all this year, barring a potential post-season match-up. The Northwestern & Nebraska series early on may well determine Michigan's fate in terms of the Big Ten regular season crown. Other than those two teams, only OSU among Michigan opponents was above .500 in league play last year (12-11). Penn State, Maryland, and Rutgers were middling, while Indiana and Sparty were just dreadful.
Link: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/101515aaa.html
October 15th, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^
Good. There seems to be a positive correlation between the difficulty of Michigan's early-season schedule and their success in the tournament. Last season's schedule was easily the toughest of the last decade, and it paid off.
And that 11-game road trip to California? Wow... Oklahoma, UCLA, Cal, Oregon State and NC State among others.
As far as the B1G schedule is concerened, that's how it is going to work from now on: Michigan will play all 6 teams in the East half and only 2 teams from the West. Since all of the good teams except for Michigan are in the West, we are kind of screwed out of playing a tough conference schedule. I don't know why the B1G went to the regionalized schedule in softball but not in baseball, but it's likely here to stay.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^
Yeah, unfortunately you're right about the B10 schedule. It does work in our favor to some extent, insofar as it means we tend to have an easier route to the B10 title, but I'd rather face the best competition available to prepare for the post-season. Maryland/Rutgers really hurt softball scheduling a lot. At least the Maryland thing meant I could go to a game here in DC last year, though, so that was nice.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^
Is there really a correlation there? Are there recent data points where we have had easy non-conference schedules and then were bad in the post-season? I am honestly asking as I have only followed softball for a couple years now.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
I don't have time to dig any deeper right now, unfortunately, but I was thinking of going to the RPI archive on the NCAA website and correlating strength of schedule with tournament success. I think I will find that they are correlated.
I also think that Coach Hutchins intentionally seeks out a tougher NC schedule when the team is experienced and gives them an easier start when she has a young team, so the correlation might not imply causation here.
October 15th, 2015 at 2:56 PM ^
minnesota is our 'traveling partner' for the B1G - ACC Challenge games at FSU with VT as the other ACC team..... would have been nice to throw in a game there versus Minnesota, but who knows the timing of the scheduling.
October 15th, 2015 at 3:19 PM ^
October 15th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^
Looks like I need to take off 2/12. That's a really solid opening tournament, and the Florida game should be another 1 v. 2.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^
SBW, what are the best resources for following the team (live) early on in the season when they are down south/west? I assume very few will be televised on standard cable. Any good services that have streams that require short term commitments?
I am a season ticket holder, but I need/want to stay on top of the early season more.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^
There are essentially no streams or radio broadcasts for those early-season tournaments. Really, I find the best way to follow the team is through gametracker plus the Michigan Softball twitter feed.
Even gametracker sometimes doesn't work in those tournament games.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
You can also always try going to the hosting team schedule and seeing if there's any media coverage. Every now and then you'll be able to buy a stream or listen to the campus radio broadcast.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
I second Alton's comment - combining Gametracker via Mgoblue.com & the michigan softball twitter account tends to be your best bet. The twitter account is sometimes a little faster to update than Gametracker (although not always), while Gametracker is more detailed.
It's also worth checking Mgoblue.com before the games because every now & again something will get streamed online. I got to watch a couple of our non-conf games that way last year (Cal State Fullerton & ASU, IIRC), because the host was streaming it on their website. If such a stream exists, mgoblue.com shoul have a link to it.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:24 PM ^
Let's cut to the chase. Are we favored this year to win the Natty? Most of the team back, now have three #1 pitchers (while usually you only have one #1)? How much if anyone did Florida lose?
October 15th, 2015 at 1:34 PM ^
I would say that we are in that group of 5 or fewer teams who are seriously expected to be in title contention. You never know quite how things will shape up until the season gets going, and post-season sports are always somewhat unpredictable. However, we lost very little off of probably the 2nd best team in Michigan history last year, and what we did lose we have solid replacements for. I wouldn't quite go so far as to say we have 3 ace pitchers - we have 1 for sure in Betsa and hopefully a 2nd in Driesenga. Blanco might get there, but it'll take some time I think & she has a fair amount still to prove.
Florida for their part also didn't lose much in terms of numbers, but they did lose their national player of the year winner. Since she anchored both their pitching rotation & their batting line-up, that's a big loss. They still have a ton of talent, though, and they are also absolutely in that discussion of the top 2, 3, 4 teams in the nation.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:36 PM ^
So, you're saying we are a shoe-in for the Natty? Awesome, I'll clear a spot on the mantle.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^
throw up in their mouth a little at the term "natty?"
October 15th, 2015 at 2:58 PM ^
Strange that we will be seeing Virginia Tech, Illinois State, and Long Beach all in multiple tournaments. I would have preferred some new faces.
October 15th, 2015 at 6:27 PM ^
Romero Showdown on 2/26 against Oklahoma. Long awaited.
And what kind of bullshit is this? Nebraska has been in the B1G for half a decade now and they still have yet to play at Alumni Field.