Why Doesn’t WSU Have a Women’s Softball Team? Other Surprising Schools Missing, Too.
According to various TV network sources, since 2021, women's collegiate softball has seen its ratings go up 78 percent. There's now a 'healthy' women's professional league that just concluded its second season, the AUSL--and they have a team in Portland, OR, the Cascades. And yet, our neighbors in Pullman have never featured the yellow ball.
So, Why Hasn't WSU Ever Had an NCAA Women's Softball Team?
Perhaps I am hyper-focused on the sport since our daughter switched to it from baseball in 2019, and is going to play in college on a scholarship. But for a number of years, girls and women's softball has steadily grown, and was ready to explode.
The 50th anniversary of Title IX (9), which in 1972 demanded equality for women, including collegiate sports, was the push that started the snowball in 2022.
The College World Series Drew Record Crowds
The 2026 Women's College World Series between Texas and Texas Tech drew 1.6 million total TV and streaming viewers, an NCAA record for a softball championship. Hundreds of club teams are being formed across the nation, and a few years ago, the WIAA sanctioned slowpitch varsity softball for WA high schools--with good turnout. For this article, we're referring to fastpitch.
Fastpitch, traditional, is in the spring, girls slowpitch is played in the fall.
But, there are some surprising schools that have never had an NCAA women's softball team. They include USC(!), Montana State, the University of Idaho, the Miami Hurrcanes, EWU, and yes, WSU--Wazzu.
Softball, Overall, is One of the Five Fastest-Growing Sports in the US
It's a long, and short answer. In general, WSU has had fewer varsity sports than any in the old PAC-12, and now the 'new' version. For example, Cal-Berkley has a combined 28 mens and women's sports, WSU has 15. You may remember in the 70's and early 80's the WSU track teams that were at the top of the PAC-8, PAC-10 and 12 standings, and the legendary baseball program under Bobo Brayton, who took the Cougs to the College World Series in 1976.
But now, a lot of WSU's money goes to football, as happens at a lot of D-I schools, and budget shortfalls and financial issues prevent sport expansion.
In 2016, WSU Addressed the Issue, No New Sports
An article published in WSU Athletics Coug Center pointed to the shortfalls, but it also pointed out how great it would be if WSU added soccer or softball. In 2012, a letter to the Editor in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin opined about how great the opportunities would be for area girls to play if WSU had a team.
If you had to pointpoint, it's largely budgetary, and money. Despite the explosion of the sport, some schools have not, or are just not going to get on board. UW has a stellar program, but the elephant in the room is, they just don't recruit Eastern WA much, if at all. The University of Oregon has almost as many WA girls on their roster as does UW.
If WSU did field a team, they'd have dozens of quality prospects all over southeast WA to choose from, and girls would be chomping at the bit to try to go there. I know a lot about the recruiting and the landscape because our daughter was heavily recruited, and we saw it from the inside.
Hopefully, WSU decides to add one somewhere down the road.
CHECK IT OUT: 100 sports records and the stories behind them
