The 2025 Women's College World Series came to an end late last week and a national champion other than the Oklahoma Sooners was crowned for the first time in five seasons.
The Sooners gave way this year to Texas and Texas Tech, both of which posted wins over Oklahoma on the way to the national championship series. In the end, it was the hated Longhorns putting their name on the WCWS championship trophy for the very first time, winning two of three games from a Texas Tech team that was making its very first trip to Oklahoma City and the WCWS.
The looming question in Sooner Nation after an atypical season by Oklahoma standards -- the Sooners' 52 wins in 2025 was the fewest since 2015 -- was this just a temporary pause as Patty Gasso and Co. retool and readjust to the new world order in college sports to come back as strong as ever going forward?
More pertinently, can Oklahoma not only make it back to the WCWS again in 2026 -- it's almost as if the Sooners have a contract with the overseers of the WCWS that prohibits them from being excluded -- but be in a position to win it all and begin an all new championship run?
The answer to the former is "yes," and because of that, it's also "yes" to the latter question. After all, history tells us that when Oklahoma makes it to the Women's College World Series, it has a really good chance of taking home the championship trophy. The Sooners have made it to the WCWS 18 times since 2000 under Gasso, won the national championship eight times and finished as national runner-up twice during that span.
Oklahoma softball has what it takes to get back to the CWS next season
Until the Sooners don't make it to Oklahoma City and the WCWS, it would seem pretty foolhardy to count them out. And the 2026 group looks really stacked and seasoned looking ahead to next season.
No one outside of the Oklahoma softball program or perhaps the state of Oklahoma could have imagined in their wildest dreams that a team that had to replace 14 spots on a 22-player roster this past season would be playing in the Women's College World Series this season, let alone be one of the final four teams left standing and just three wins away from a record fifth straight national title.
Thirteen members of the 2025 Sooner roster were underclassmen, nine of those were freshmen, including three freshmen in the starting lineup. Typically, you wouldn't consider a team with that many young and new players to be on a par with the best teams in the sport
No team has been more dominant in the past quarter century of college softball than the Oklahoma Sooners. OU has been to the WCWS 22 times in program history. Eighteen of those, including this season, have been since 2000, tied with UCLA for the most of any team over that span.
The Sooners aren't the only team that brings back offensive firepower and lockdown pitching for the 2026 season. In fact, it's entirely possible that the eight teams we see in next season's Women's College World Series have a very familiar look.
A couple of way-too-early projections we've seen have reigning champions Texas, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Oregon and Oklahoma returning to the big stage in OKC a year from now, and could 2026 be the year former Sooner Jordy Bahl makes her WCWS return, but in a different uniform?
Any coach or player will tell you it's a very difficult road to get to the WCWS, and to be able to do it year after year -- let alone win it all -- is a truly remarkable accomplishment. Whatever happens next college softball season, it should be another strong year for Oklahoma softball. And let's be brutally honest: It would be a big disappointment if the Sooners fail to make it back to Oklahoma City.