Clearwater Tournament Games of Interest Weekend 2/15/24

[TropicalSooner]

Everyone feel free to help post results and comments---I won't be able to keep up and there is a boatload of top games tomorrow (Friday)
Fla St 3
Stanford 0
WP Royalty
LP Canady

[TropicalSooner]

For Friday--here's what I'll be checking in on:

Georgia v Okie lite - ESPNU Will the real OSU please stand up
Fla St V UCLA - ESPNU Is UCLA really that bad?
Tenn v Stanford - ACC Netw More curious to see who Stanford pitches
Okie Lite v Wisky - ESPN+ - We have Wisky at Nutter--scouting report
Georgia v UCLA - ESPN+ More UCLA questions
Tennessee v Texas - LHN - What does Texas look like after their soft opening weekend?
Stanford v Texas - ESPN2 Yay! - Texas v Canady I hope!

[OUBeliever56A]

All the games in Clearwater are interesting. But for the most part, most teams do not leave Florida unscathed. What is important is that almost every team gets a huge RPI bounce from being there that helps all season long, especially if you win after this weekend.

It will be interesting to see how UCLA's pitching rebounds this weekend, however.

[TropicalSooner]

It's too bad that we don't participate in that tournament.
I get that Coach Gasso had a horrible experience there once and will never go back, but I wish they would make improvements to the facilities down there so we could possibly return. Nobody comes out of that Tournament unscathed, but like you said, you get a nice RPI bump that follows you thru the year.

Perhaps when Flo's contract expires, Mary Nutter will opt for ESPN and that should draw more important teams from the South and Southeast and would add to its prestige also.

[OUBeliever56A]

It's too bad that we don't participate in that tournament.
I get that Coach Gasso had a horrible experience there once and will never go back, but I wish they would make improvements to the facilities down there so we could possibly return. Nobody comes out of that Tournament unscathed, but like you said, you get a nice RPI bump that follows you thru the year.

Perhaps when Flo's contract expires, Mary Nutter will opt for ESPN and that should draw more important teams from the South and Southeast and would add to its prestige also.

The last time that OU was there, 2019, the facilities were subpar except for the two west fields. And there the ability to handle the crowd was so far from where it needed to be it was ridiculous. If you wanted a hot dog, you missed the game standing in line.

Right now, OU's fan base and the young ladies wanting to see them play, would overrun the facilities.

"Perhaps when Flo's contract expires, Mary Nutter will opt for ESPN and that should draw more important teams from the South and Southeast and would add to its prestige also."


How does FloSoftball enter into this?

[oufanforever]

Georgia comes back and beats OSU 7-4, and Washington wins 8-1 against Kentucky.

[TropicalSooner]

It's too bad that we don't participate in that tournament.
I get that Coach Gasso had a horrible experience there once and will never go back, but I wish they would make improvements to the facilities down there so we could possibly return. Nobody comes out of that Tournament unscathed, but like you said, you get a nice RPI bump that follows you thru the year.

Perhaps when Flo's contract expires, Mary Nutter will opt for ESPN and that should draw more important teams from the South and Southeast and would add to its prestige also.

The last time that OU was there, 2019, the facilities were subpar except for the two west fields. And there the ability to handle the crowd was so far from where it needed to be it was ridiculous. If you wanted a hot dog, you missed the game standing in line.

Right now, OU's fan base and the young ladies wanting to see them play, would overrun the facilities.

"Perhaps when Flo's contract expires, Mary Nutter will opt for ESPN and that should draw more important teams from the South and Southeast and would add to its prestige also."


How does FloSoftball enter into this?

Oh, it may not really. Just from what I read it seems like most everyone subscribes in some form for ESPN packages so they already have access to the clearwater games whereas Flo is another charge on top of what they are already paying for. I figure that the players or rather the teams want to play for who gets the most eyeballs on them now, which it seems would be the ESPN family of packages. There's a lot of clearwater games all over ESPN with big money backing---all on sub par fields and facilities. Makes me scratch my head anyway. The only reason I brought that up was that Clearwater seems to be fielding a whole lot of Top 20 teams, and I just figured they went there for the bigger exposure than Flo.
I may be all wet too.

[OUBeliever56A]

I think they go there for RPI purposes.

[inconnu]

I think they go there for RPI purposes.

No doubt on that, and seems that many teams like that their squads get opportunities to compare themselves with other known quality programs, and learn a lot more about who and what they will confront when it's crunch time.

However, I think Patty's approach to recruiting makes more sense for OU than if we were to substitute Clearwater for our West Coast tournament. Since we recruit so well in CA and AZ, it makes sense for Western families to have more opportunities to see the Sooners play.

[TN Sooner]

I don’t know how much impact it makes, but ESPN bought the Clearwater tournament- not just the rights, they bought the tournament. ESPN aggressively hypes and touts what it owns, so there is outsized attention paid to that tournament as opposed to others with longer standing cred and often equally strong fields. I think that matters far less to OU than it does to many other top teams. OU softball dominates social media and generates its own national cred.

[TropicalSooner]

Well, to be clear, Clearwater doesn't interfere with the West Coast Tournaments. It wouldn't be substituting one for another. Mark Campbell (or Puerta Vallarta if you want to do that) is the first weekend of play, Clearwater the second week, and Mary Nutter the third. And if future timing/scheduling did make it occur, then no doubt we would stay with the west coast tournaments--they are way too important in recruiting and for families to be able to watch us play.

[TropicalSooner]

For Friday--here's what I'll be checking in on:

Georgia v Okie lite - ESPNU Will the real OSU please stand up
Fla St V UCLA - ESPNU Is UCLA really that bad?
Tenn v Stanford - ACC Netw More curious to see who Stanford pitches
Okie Lite v Wisky - ESPN+ - We have Wisky at Nutter--scouting report
Georgia v UCLA - ESPN+ More UCLA questions
Tennessee v Texas - LHN - What does Texas look like after their soft opening weekend?
Stanford v Texas - ESPN2 Yay! - Texas v Canady I hope!

Here we go:

Georgia 7
Okie St 4

Fla St 10
UCLA 14

Tenn 0
Stan 1

Okie St 9
Wisky 5

Georgia 7
UCLA 2

Tenn 1
Texas 2

Texas 9
Stan 2

[TN Sooner]

Some early scores are eye-popping:

UGA 12
FSU 1
2nd inning

LSU 5
OSU 1
3rd inning.

Balls are flying in central Florida.

[TN Sooner]

OSU 6
LSU 5
Bottom 7, LSU has 2nd and 3rd

And now - rain delay, with LSU coach pissed they are pausing the game

[OUBeliever56A]

LSU won 7-6.....