The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Softball voted third in Big 12 Conference preseason coaches’ poll
01.19.2022 | Softball
Texas reaped 26 total points to trail Oklahoma & Oklahoma State in the preseason league standings
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas softball program has been selected to finish third in the annual Big 12 Conference preseason coaches poll released on Wednesday.
Defending national champion Oklahoma earned the top spot for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons after picking up six first-place votes and 36 total points. Oklahoma State garnered the other first-place vote and 31 total points, while Texas solidly held down the third spot with 26 total points.
Baylor (19 points), Iowa State (18 points), Texas Tech (10 points) and Kansas (seven points) rounded out spots four through seven in the preseason league standings.
UT has now been picked to finish among the Big 12 Conference's top three teams for 12 consecutive seasons. Texas is a four-time regular-season league champion (2002, 2003, 2006 & 2010), which ranks second-most among the seven league schools. In each of the four years that the Horns secured the conference title, UT was not the coaches' preseason favorite to win the crown. In 2002 the Longhorns were chosen third behind Nebraska and Oklahoma, while in 2003, UT was voted second behind the Cornhuskers. Texas trailed only Texas A&M in the 2006 preseason poll and was picked fifth before eventually winning the 2010 Big 12 Championship.
Coming off a 43-14 record, a No. 12 final ranking in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and an appearance at the NCAA Stillwater Super Regional in 2021, Texas is returning 10 players that appeared in at least 30 games (six appeared in at least 40 contests and four in at least 50 match-ups) and 13 total letter winners that combined to total 68% of the runs, 66% of the hits, 53% of the doubles, 86% of the triples, 59% of the HR's, 59% of the RBIs, 68% of the walks and 77% of the stolen bases from last season's program-record-setting offense (.342 team avg., 366 runs, 512 hits, 78 HR's, .980 OPS) as well as 47% of the team's pitching victories and 51% of the pitching strikeouts.
The Longhorns have also added 11 players to the roster including five high-profile transfers and a six-member signing class that ranked No. 7 in the nation according to Extra Inning Softball's 2021 Top 100 College Rankings.
2022 Big 12 Softball Preseason Poll
- Oklahoma (36, six first-place votes)
- Oklahoma State (31, one first-place vote)
- TEXAS (26)
- Baylor (19)
- Iowa State (18)
- Texas Tech (10)
- Kansas (7)
