Don’t cry because it’s over

The GIST: After a wild weekend of broken attendance records and broken hearts at the Women’s College World Series (WCWS), No. 5–seed Oklahoma State, No. 6 UCLA, No. 10 Duke, and No. 14 Alabama all saw their title dreams dashed. That leaves four survivors fighting for a spot in this week’s championship series.

• Today’s semis are No. 1 Texas’ and No. 2 Oklahoma’s to lose. Neither has yet to fall in Oklahoma City, so their one-loss opponents must beat them twice to advance, while the Longhorns and Sooners would be through with a single dub. All eyes on OKC.

No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners vs. No. 4 Florida Gators, 12 p.m. ET (ESPN): Serious offensive struggles sent Florida to the elimination bracket — they squeaked by No. 5 Oklahoma State 1–0 Thursday only to be walloped 10–0 by Texas on Saturday. But the Gators came out swinging last night, topping Alabama 6–4 to stay alive.

• There’s absolutely no room for slow bats today as Florida takes on the three-time reigning champs, who have allowed only one run through their first two WCWS games and whose star shortstop, Tiare Jennings, is looking damn near unstoppable at the plate.

No. 1–seed Texas Longhorns vs. No. 8 Stanford Cardinal, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2): Who doesn’t love a rematch with the World Series on the line? Texas sent the Cardinal to the elimination bracket with a 4–0 shutout Thursday and has only picked up steam since, thanks to their outstanding pitchers.

• But the Card has a formidable pitching staff of their own, led by newly-crowned MVP NiJaree Canady. Never say never for these California gurls when she’s in the circle — as long as she’s not exhausted from putting Stanford on her back up to this point.

The GIST: Baseball’s regional round was so chaotic that it couldn’t be contained in three days — several teams blasted through elimination brackets, forcing regional finals to continue tonight, with trips to next weekend’s 16-team Super Regionals on the line.

The upsets: Fans stunned by the selection committee’s choice to award Arizona the No. 13 seed and regional hosting rights were majorly validated this weekend: The Wildcats crashed and burned, going 0-2 to become the first seeded team ousted from the bracket. Ouch.

• The next seeded team to fall was much more surprising: No. 5 Arkansas. The SEC powerhouse won their first game but then lost two, allowing underdog Kansas State to advance yesterday.

Today’s must-win matchups: The only other seeded team to fall so far is No. 14 UC Santa Barbara, who suffered their second tough loss to Super Regional–bound Oregon last night. But, five more squads are on the ropes in today’s lose-or-go-home regional final showdowns. If you only have time for one, make it No. 4 UNC vs. reigning national champ LSU at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+.

• These two split their weekend matchups, and while UNC may be the favorite on paper, there’s no telling what the Tigers can do when they get hot.

The GIST: You ask, we answer! Just like last year, we’re using the summer break to dive deeper into some of college sports’ most complex topics. We’ll be putting out a call for your questions later this week, so start brainstorming. For example…

Q: What is redshirting?

A: Redshirting is when an NCAA athlete sits out of competition for a season to avoid using one of their four years of eligibility. If a player wants to build up their skills or recover from an injury, she might redshirt so she can have an “extra” year of low-pressure training with her team (and attend classes on scholarship, if she has one).

• Medical redshirting is similar: If an athlete is injured in the first half of the season and participates in less than 30% of that season’s games, she can opt out of the rest of the season without using eligibility. Check out this article for more on the types of redshirting.

• What about athletes who have been around for six or seven (or even eight?!) years? These players often combine a voluntary and/or a medical redshirt year with their bonus COVID-19 eligibility, granted to those whose college careers were interrupted by the pandemic.

Q: What does it mean to be an NCAA “emerging sport?”

A: In response to the Gender Equity Task Force’s recommendations, the NCAA created the Emerging Sports for Women program in 1994 to help schools provide more opportunities for female athletes (and satisfy Title IX requirements) by introducing new sports to the collegiate scene.

• For a sport to join the program, at least 10 schools must sponsor a team. These squads then compete in temporary limbo — somewhere between club sports and full-fledged NCAA championship–sport status — while campaigning to grow in popularity.

• To achieve full NCAA status, emerging sports must grow to 40 schools within 10 years (or show significant progress). If they don’t, they could be booted back to club status. RIP archery and squash.

What’s next: The NCAA announced in February that women’s wrestling will graduate from the Emerging Sports program and host its first-ever championship during the winter of the 2025–26 school year, joining rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling, and beach volleyball as Emerging Sports success stories.

• Five other sports are still working their way through the program: equestrian, rugby, triathlon, stunt, and acrobatics & tumbling. May the odds be ever in their favor.