Minnesota Golden Gophers softball snub is a great thing

In the world of sports there are topics that dominate the headlines: NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA Football and NCAA Men’s Basketball seem to be the top of that list most days. There’s a handful of other sports on the fringe like the NHL, MLS, MMA, WNBA, NCAA Women’s Basketball, NASCAR and Indy Car. Those sports have nice-sized audiences, but don’t have great widespread appeal. After you pass those, the other sports throughout the United States don’t get any major airtime.

Controversy changes that.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gopher softball team has burst through the abyss and into the limelight of major headlines in the local papers and onto the local TV and radio stations. The Gophers were getting some headlines throughout their remarkable season, but nothing like they have the past couple of days with the snub the Golden Gophers were handed.

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Minnesota has been ranked highly all-season long. The Gophers kicked off the season with a 19-game winning streak, they are currently on a 25-game winning streak, they won the most games of any other team in school history, won their first Big Ten regular season title since 1991 and won their third Big Ten Tournament Championship in four years while finishing with a 54-3 overall record, according to Gopher Sports.

That’s surely a great resume, but it wasn’t good enough to be seeded in the NCAA Tournament. Sixteen teams are seeded and the Gophers didn’t make the cut somehow.

It does not make a whole lot of sense. Even if the Big Ten is a weak softball conference and even if the Gophers did have a really, really weak schedule, it still takes an amazing amount of talent to only lose three games in a softball season.

In the coaches poll before the seedings were announced, the Gophers were ranked second behind softball powerhouse Florida. In the final coaches’ poll, which came out after the seeds, the Gophers ascended to the top of the poll. Yes, the number one ranked team in the nation enters the NCAA Tournament unseeded.

Controversy, of course, is running wild when the NCAA has to release a statement about the snub.

This is the best thing to ever happen to the Gopher softball program.

The phenomenal pitching of Sara Groenewegen, the remarkable hitting of Kendyl Lindaman and the lengthy winning streaks have garnered some local attention, but nothing like this. If the Gophers would have been ranked anywhere in the Top 16, it would have been a nice story that the locals would’ve noted and moved on. Take the amount of people that the Gophers would dream of having be interested in their team, double it and that is what they currently have with the non-seed controversy.

It is important though for the Gophers to not squander this opportunity. The snub has given the Gophers a large backing that will last throughout the playoffs if they win. If the Gophers lose out right away, we are not going to think about Gopher softball for another 11 months… maybe.

The Gophers have bulletin board material and the state of Minnesota’s attention, now they just need to cash in.

Next up for the Gophers:

The NCAA Tournament kicks off for the Gophers on Friday against Louisiana Tech at 1:30 Central. The game will be on ESPNU.  The Gophers are playing in the Tuscaloosa Regional in Alabama. Minnesota has done well on the road this season with a 38-3 record with 20 true road victories.

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