Welcome to Tuesday Takes, where I give you four takes from the Big 12. It was a jam-packed week full of exciting news, but several things caught my attention over the last few days.
Arizona State Will Make it Out of Opening Weekend
I was dead wrong about Texas Tech softball last week because I didn’t give enough respect to Arizona State. The Sun Devils took down the regular-season champ in the conference tournament this past week with a convincing 4-0 victory to capture the championship.
As great as that moment was, they didn’t get any favors done for them when Selection Sunday came around. Arizona State is heading to Texas for the regional in College Station, where the Aggies are hosting.
Texas A&M is a solid team once again and many have the Aggies winning their regional and moving on. But not so fast, my friend, give me Arizona State to come out of College Station and turn their focus to Texas in the Supers.
Texas Tech Will Be Fine
Even though they lost in the Big 12 championship game, I am here to tell you that Texas Tech softball isn’t going to fall off a cliff anytime soon. In fact, they still are one of the top seeds in the postseason and are hosting a regional.
They will likely make it out with ease, but a potential matchup with Florida in Gainesville looms. That will be a must-watch series if the Gators can take care of business at home.
But no matter if they do or not, don’t sleep on this Texas Tech team. They were the Big 12 regional champs and have the star power to compete with anyone in the entire country. So maybe worried about the Red Raiders, but not me. They will be fine.
Tournament Expansion Was the Wrong Decision
Some people want the NCAA basketball tournament to include more teams. I was not one of those people. But it appears it doesn’t matter whether I like it or not because the NCAA Tournament will officially expand to 76 teams starting next season.
It would be one thing if expansion gave smaller schools a better opportunity to get in, but I know that’s not the case. While expansion will increase the size of the bubble, it will likely just include more power four teams.
Do we really need a tenth-place team from the Big Ten in the tournament instead of a smaller school that finished second in a respectable mid-major conference? Not really. But I know that’s exactly what’s going to happen. This move won’t give the smaller schools a better chance; it will likely only benefit the big ones.
The Big 12 Title Race Will Come Down to the Final Day
As great as softball was last week, don’t forget that the last weekend of the regular season is this upcoming weekend for Big 12 baseball. And after a crazy weekend, the conference standings are a lot tighter thanks to West Virginia’s sweep over Kansas.
The Mountaineers sit just one game back behind the Jayhawks, and both teams have just three games remaining. West Virginia hosts TCU while Kansas heads west to take on BYU in Provo. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that it’s going to come down to the final day (Saturday) before we are able to crown a regular-season champion.
