No program at Oklahoma is more SEC-ready than Patty Gasso’s softball juggernaut.
Gasso celebrated her final month as a coach in the Big 12 with a fourth straight national title. She watched the most decorated senior class in the history of the sport ride off into the sunset with one last celebration in Oklahoma City brought on by a sweep of the Texas Longhorns in the Championship Series.
The program now has eight national championships to its name, with seven of those coming since 2013.
OU will undoubtedly undergo a major facelift this offseason.Ten seniors graduated and another three players left via the transfer portal. Gasso signed eight talented freshman, and has already filled four of five open roster spots out of the portal.
Love’s Field’s opening in 2024 was a major success, and it would be fitting that the first blockbuster recruiting win for Gasso at her new palace could be the addition of 2024 USA Softball Player of the Year NiJaree Canady, who is sought after by virtually every top team in the sport.
“I'm ready to start coaching again, because I don't have to coach this (veteran team),” Gasso said earlier this month after winning the title. “They know it. They've got it. They coach each other. I'm really excited about what's coming.”
Should the Sooners land the former Stanford star, the impressive Southeastern Conference will be stuck in a steel cage with Gasso and Oklahoma, not the other way around.
Top-to-bottom, the SEC will undoubtedly be a step up in competition from the Big 12.
Every SEC school that fields a softball team made the NCAA Tournament in 2024, truly giving each conference series a Super Regional-style feel every weekend.
And while the strength of the conference is unquestioned, that hasn’t translated to total domination at the top like it has for the SEC in baseball.
An SEC school hasn’t played in the Championship Series at the Women’s College World Series since 2017 — when the Florida Gators lost to OU.
Oklahoma and fellow SEC newcomer Texas have met twice for the national title in the last three years, and Kenny Gajewski’s Oklahoma State Cowgirls have ensured the Sooners play another massive ranked series every year since 2021.
The difficulty of the new conference will be trading matchups against Houston, Iowa State and Texas Tech for programs like Ole Miss, Kentucky and South Carolina.
Oklahoma has played well in those tests against its future conference opponents, too.
Over the past four years, the Sooners are a combined 22-2 against the SEC.
Oklahoma lost to Georgia in the second game of a doubleheader in Athens in 2021, but later avenged that loss at the WCWS. OU also split its pair of contests at the 2024 WCWS against Florida to advance to the Championship Series to meet Texas. The Sooners went 5-0 against the SEC in 2022 and 10-0 against the league in 2023.
Road atmospheres will get more hostile, but the Sooners are used to traveling with a crimson horde as fans flock from across the country to watch the nation’s dominant program play.
And no home field advantage will be better than the one Gasso has built at Love’s Field, and the OU head coach only expects her team to play better as they get more familiar with their new surroundings in Year 2.
Regardless of who starts in the circle next year for the Sooners, Gasso’s program got a shot in the arm in 2024 from freshmen Ella Parker and Kasidi Pickering.
Parker finished first on the team with a .415 batting average, blasting 13 home runs and batting in 62 runs while also hitting 15 doubles and drawing 34 walks last year.
Pickering was fifth on the team with a .389 average, belting 12 home runs and totaling 51 RBIs.
They’ll join first baseman Cydney Sanders as returning starters, and Gasso also has experience coming back in outfielder Hannah Coor and pitchers Kierston Deal and Paytn Monticelli.
The Sooners also added former Utah Third Team All-American outfielder Abby Dayton, BYU’s star shortstop Ailana Agbayani, steady North Carolina catcher Isabela Emerling and Campbell’s veteran right hander Isabella Smith over the past two weeks to join Gasso’s star-studded freshman class in 2025.
Most importantly, Gasso will return to the dugout next year alongside her pair of associate head coaches, Jennifer Rocha and JT Gasso, to guide the program into its competitive new era.
