Should Texas Softball Claim a National Title for 2020?
Texas softball finished the abbreviated 2020 season with a 24-3 record and the No. 1 ranking in the Softball America Poll.
While this already marks history, being the first time in the program has been ranked No. 1 at the end of the season, the NCAA should take it a step further and give Texas its first-ever softball national championship in honor of the stellar season.
The Longhorns beat four of the final top 25 squads, including the No. 2 (UCLA) and No. 3 (Washington) teams in the poll and notched several statistical successes and individual honors in 2020.
Yes, they would be the first - and likely only - softball national champion not to earn the title through the annual Women's College World Series, but these are unique times that call for unique measures.
College football is considered the NCAA's biggest money-maker by far and its national champion didn't participate in a postseason tournament until 2014. In fact, the Associated Press college football national champion was crowned before bowl games were played all the way up until 1965. The 1970 Texas Longhorns have a claim to the national title despite losing their bowl game to Notre Dame.
All in all the history books are going to look barren without a 2020 college softball national champion, so why not award the team that was most deserving. Over the course of the season when you look at it from a level playing field, Texas was considered the best by an objective group of judges. If that's a good enough reason to award a national title in football, it should be in softball as well.