Windham Wrap-up: Video Review is Step in the Right Direction for NCAA Softball
On Friday, the NCAA Playing Rules and Oversight Panel approved implementing video review in college softball starting in the 2022 season. It will allow coaches to have two challenges throughout a game.
Video review has been tested sporadically over the years in college softball, but most recently it was used in some conference tournaments in 2021, including the SEC tournament in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy was a proponent of adding video review throughout the league and country after the SEC tournament.
"Once they make that call after the video but review, no coach can say a word," Murphy said back in May. "So, it's done. There's no more arguing, and I know some people think it adds time but you know think about an argument that would go on forever."
Some of the calls that will now be reviewable are batted balls fair or foul, pitched balls for dropped third strikes, foul tips, or hit-by-pitches, obstruction, and safe or out along the base paths.
After the tournament, Murphy thought that the system would be tested during conference play in 2022, but because of the NCAA's recent approval, it can be used across the country.
"I'm really glad that we got to do it this year," Murphy said during the SEC tournament. "I really think that next year it'll go conference wide during the season, and I think that'll be even a bigger sample size for everybody in the country to say hey, maybe this isn't so bad, because you know we've been on the bad end of several calls at theWorld Series which decided games, and it was very frustrating."
Overall, this a step in the right direction for the continued growth of college softball. While Alabama has one of the biggest and arguably most passionate softball fan bases, fan support and engagement has gotten larger all around the country. The Women's College World Series had higher television ratings than baseball's College World Series, yet the CWS had video review and the WCWS did not.
By adding video review the odds of a team losing a game based on an incorrect call will decrease, hopefully making college softball more accurate and fair for coaches and players and less frustrating for fans.
