On the Diamond

The official site has sort of a “how they got here” article that summarizes their time in Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series and possible upcoming opponent. I’m up again too early for the preview. Regardless, we now know that the opponent tonight is 4-time defending National Champion, Oklahoma Sooners. Wanna be the best? Then you gotta beat the best. Oklahoma already has a loss, while Texas Tech does not, and the Sooners played yesterday, although back-to-back games aren’t that big of a deal in softball from my very limited experience.

Tonight’s game against the Sooners is at 6:00 p.m. and the game is on ESPN.

On the Track

Texas Tech track & field participated in the NCAA West Regionals in College Station this weekend. The men finished on Friday night and the women finished on Saturday night. Those that qualified will go the the National Championships in Eugene, Oregon on June 11-14.

On the Hardwood

CBS Sports’ Jordan Dajani reports that the NCAA is attempting to expand March Madness from 68 to 72 or 76 teams.

The NCAA’s college football playoff model is currently being debated, and its college basketball postseason could soon be changed as well. At Big 12 spring meetings this week, NCAA president Charlie Baker revealed that one of his top priorities was to discuss expanding March Madness — and it could be coming as soon as this year.

“That would be the goal, to try and do this for next year,” Baker said. “We’ve been talking about 72 and 76 [teams].”

This is a massive development, as NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told CBS Sports just two months ago that a decision on future NCAA Tournament expansion was unlikely to come soon. Issues tied to expansion are certainly financial, but there are also other topics to discuss, such as preserving the tradition that has become March Madness.

On the Gridiron

Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s Mike Craven has an excellent story on Texas Tech GM James Blanchard and goes through his process in becoming a general manager to turning down the job at Notre Dame twice to remain at Texas Tech. Go read.