Why Patty Gasso is 'Excited' for Oklahoma to Face the Challenging SEC Schedule
News rarely fits into a neat schedule.
Such was the case again last Thursday, as the Oklahoma Sooners opened the 2023 campaign against Duke, looking to defend back-to-back National Championships.
Patty Gasso took her team to the West Coast to face three ranked teams and a plucky Liberty squad at the Mark Campbell Invitational. But not even three innings into the event, a bombshell was dropped.
Oklahoma and Texas officially reached an agreement with the Big 12, ESPN and FOX to head to the SEC a year early, starting play in all sports during the 2024-25 academic calendar.
Now, Gasso and the Sooners can proceed with clarity.
Including the 2023 season, OU softball will play two more years in the Big 12 before headed on to the SEC.
And while the level of competition will take a huge step up week-in and week-out in the SEC, Gasso is looking forward to challenging her team.
“Scheduling has always been difficult for us being in the Big 12,” Gasso said during a press conference on Wednesday, “specifically as teams were dropping in softball, we have I think seven.
“So it's always having to go out and find heavy-hitting tournaments and bolstering up our RPI. Then we get pretty good and people don't want to play us.”
Gasso is usually able to put together a taxing non-conference schedule, but the program has to go to great lengths to put together a tough slate.
This season, Oklahoma started in Irvine, CA, where it faced off against a trio of ranked opponents in Duke, Stanford and Washington at the Mark Campbell Invitational.
The Sooners will then head to Waco this weekend to play in the Getterman Classic before shipping back out to California for the annual softball showcase, the Mary Nutter Classic.
OU will get its money’s worth, as the Sooners will see Texas A&M, Utah and UCLA on the West Coast, but the travels won’t stop there.
Early in March, Oklahoma will play in the Bulldog Invitational at Mississippi State to get games against the Bulldogs, and then Sooners will use their weekend off from Big 12 play in April to play a mid-week game in Baton Rouge against LSU before headed to Ohio to participate in another multi-team event.
Last year, Gasso had to take her team to Kentucky for a mid-week contest, and in 2021 OU took a quick trip to Georgia for a double header.
“It's costing us a lot of money to create a lineup that is seen as a tough schedule, create a schedule that looks tough,” Gasso said. “That means we're charting flights or taking planes to LSU, to Mississippi State, to the east — Ohio, places like that — just to get good competition in some of these tournaments or single games.”
“Going into the SEC, I can wipe my hands of that. I don’t have to beg. I don’t have to pay. I don’t have to do those things anymore.”
Not only does the SEC send droves of teams to the Women’s College World Series, the conference is deep top to bottom.
Just this week, eight SEC programs were ranked in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll, including Florida and Arkansas in the top four.
This year, the Big 12 won’t even field eight softball programs, much less nine ranked teams. Only No. 5 Oklahoma State and No. 9 Texas will take on the Sooners in ranked conference matchups.
The next few years will bring plenty of change for OU softball.
Love’s Field will serve as the new palace for the Sooners, allowing even more Oklahoma fans to pack in and see the program take on the nation’s best in the SEC.
Gasso is running toward the challenge, and ready to help her team evolve yet again in the SEC.
“I’m excited,” she said. “The competition there is going to be tough. It’s going to be a grind. It’s day in and day out, all throughout. It is a very, very, very competitive softball conference.
“I’m going to enjoy the rest of my time in the Big 12, but I’m certainly ready to take that next step.”
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