How Does Oklahoma's Current Softball Run Compare to Other Dynasties in NCAA Women's Sports?

"the best team to ever take the field" (Sports Illustrated)

"the most dominant team in sports" and "women amongst girls" (ESPN.com)

As many readers are aware, last week the University of Oklahoma women's softball team capped an overpowering 59-3 season with a two-games-to-none wipeout of the University of Texas in the championship round of the NCAA Women's College World Series (WCWS). The quotes atop this posting are some of the media characterizations of this year's Sooners squad. Further capturing the imagination of the U.S. sports world was OU star Jocelyn Alo, who finished her collegiate career as the all-time NCAA softball home-run slugger.

The Sooners' success is not limited to the present season, either. OU has won the WCWS six times overall, including the last two and five of the last nine contested (there was no tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19). Without question, Oklahoma is the premier college softball program of the current era. However, there have been dominant women's programs in the past, not only in softball, but in a variety of other sports. Where does the OU softball program stand, historically, in relation to these other programs?

I decided to apply my enjoyment of graphic arts to this question. It has been slightly over 40 years since the NCAA took over the governance of women's collegiate sports in 1981.* Accordingly, I created a separate display for each program I'm examining (e.g., Oklahoma softball, UConn basketball, Penn State volleyball). Within each display are 42 small circles (or fewer, as when COVID-19 prevented 2020 spring championships from being held), with each NCAA national championship won by the program filled in with the main school color. Purely for purposes of explanation, the first graphic illustrates how the circles correspond to actual years.

Each of the diagonal columns represents a different decade. The left-most column depicts the 1980s, as signified by the heading "198_." The final digits to complete a year (e.g., 1981, 1982) are denoted in the rows. As you can see, as an example, where the 1980s column intersects the row with "3" to the left represents the year 1983.** With that out of the way, let's look at the records of several legendary programs in different sports.

Starting out with softball, we place Oklahoma's championship resume alongside those of the two top programs for titles won, UCLA and Arizona.

Pardon the pun, but Oklahoma (with six WCWS titles) will likely surpass Arizona's eight "sooner" rather than later. Overtaking UCLA (with 12 titles in the past 40 years) will have to be a longer-term project for OU. UCLA and Arizona each continue to make the WCWS regularly, but the Bruins have won titles more recently than the Wildcats and are probably stronger contenders to add new titles in the coming years. In fact, UCLA handed OU one of its three defeats this year, in the national semifinal round before the Sooners exacted their revenge to advance to the finals.

Two schools stand out within women's college basketball, the University of Connecticut (UConn) and the University of Tennessee. These teams' coaches during their dominant eras -- Geno Auriemma, who is still at UConn, and the late Pat Summitt of Tennessee -- are legends of the sport, as well.

Note that UConn, in addition to winning 11 NCAA titles, compiled winning streaks of 70, 90, and 111 games along the way. The Huskies' last championship came in 2016, but they made the championship game this past season.

The next graphic is devoted to two sports, volleyball and soccer. 

Penn State has won seven volleyball titles, including a stretch of six out of eight. Also, the Nittany Lions won 109 straight matches between 2007 and 2010. Penn State coach Russ Rose recently retired after 43 years, so the Lions will be in transition. Out on the soccer pitch, the University of North Carolina has compiled what I consider the best resume of any women's college sports program, with a mindboggling 21 titles (including 16 of the first 19). Mia Hamm, one of the biggest names in women's soccer history, played for the Tar Heels. Though UNC hasn't hoisted the championship trophy since 2012, it has remained in the hunt, finishing as NCAA runner-up in 2018 and 2019. Anson Dorrance will be entering his 46th season at the Tar Heels' helm this fall.

One final graphic is one I created for outdoor track and field. 

In that sport, Louisiana State University (LSU) won 11 straight NCAA team titles from 1987-1997. The Tigers added three more (2000, 2003, and 2008) for a total of 14, but have not won a championship since.

These are not all of the women's college sports dynasties one can find. Because I did not want to spend the rest of the day making graphics, however, I decided to summarize the remaining ones in words.

• Five schools have dominated women's gymnastics: Georgia (10 NCAA team titles, including five straight from 2005-2009); Utah (nine titles, including the first five, 1982-1986); UCLA (seven titles), and Alabama (six titles). One school that doesn't have as many titles as these other ones but has several recent ones is Oklahoma (2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022, along with a co-championship in 2014).
• In women's cross-country, Villanova has captured nine NCAA team championships (including six straight from 1989-1994). Stanford and Brigham Young University (BYU) have each won five.
• Stanford has triumphed 11 times in NCAA women's swimming (including five in a row from 1992-1996 and three straight from 2017-2019). Other leading teams in the pool include Texas (seven titles, with five straight from 1984-1988), Georgia (seven), Auburn (five), and California (four).
• Stanford has also dominated women's tennis (to a similar extent as North Carolina in soccer). The Cardinal has won 20 team tennis titles (including six in a row from 1986-1991 and seven of 10 from 1997-2006). Florida has won seven titles.
• Women's golf teams have had a diabolical time dealing with the Arizona State Sun Devils (eight NCAA championships, including five out of six from 1993-1998) and Duke Blue Devils (seven titles).
• Finally, women's lacrosse has belonged to Maryland (14 NCAA titles, including seven straight from 1995-2001 and four between 2014 and 2019) and Northwestern (seven titles, all within the eight-year span from 2005-2012).

Don't get me wrong. Oklahoma's recent stretch of softball success is a great accomplishment and worthy of all the accolades the Sooners have received. As you can see, however, several teams have won more overall titles and more in a concentrated period than has OU. Whether Sooner softball can ascend to the levels of North Carolina soccer, Stanford tennis, or UConn basketball is something only time will tell.

OU coach Patty Gasso just completed her 28th season and potentially could remain in her position for another 10 years or more, if she wanted. Different teams respond differently to change after a legendary coach retires (e.g., Tennessee hoops hasn't been the same without Pat Summitt, whereas UCLA softball has transitioned seamlessly from Sharron Backus to Sue Enquist to Kelly Inouye-Perez).

One interesting pattern you may have detected from the graphics is that even the greatest women's programs in a given sport do tend to slow down. LSU track and field has not won a team title since 2008, North Carolina soccer hasn't since 2012, Penn State volleyball since 2014, and UConn basketball since 2016, for example. That could also happen with Oklahoma softball; there's just no way to know at present.

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*Before that, the governing body for women's sports was the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). The AIAW sponsored national collegiate championships in many women's sports starting around 1971 (results compilation here), but AIAW predecessors were hosting championships even before 1971. The NCAA had been holding men's college sports championships since 1921, but for 60 years never sponsored any women's championships. During the 1981-82 academic year, the NCAA made its foray into women's sports, with both the AIAW and NCAA sponsoring women's championships that year. As one article on the history of the AIAW and NCAA's roles in women's college sports notes, "The NCAA had economic muscle" and the AIAW ceased operations shortly thereafter.

**Universities' academic years, of course, overlap two different calendar years. For example, the 2022-23 academic year begins in the fall of 2022 and ends in the spring of 2023. In the graphics, the year of a given championship represents when the final tournament or competition was held. For example, because the NCAA women's volleyball title match is held in December, the 2013 championship would have been held in December 2013. With basketball, on the other hand, the title game is held in April, so the 2013 championship would have been held in April 2013.