Patty Gasso and her Oklahoma Sooners softball team have become as much a fixture at the Women's College World Series in recent years as the singing of the national anthem.
They don't always win it all, however, carting home the championship trophy in seven of the last 11 seasons is pretty darn close to it, and the Sooners were the national runner-up in one of the other seasons. Moreover, Oklahoma has made it to the Women's College World Series in 13 of the last 14 seasons.
Suffice it to say that when Gasso, the winningest active head coach in NCAA Division I softball, has something to say, people listen. Or at least they should.
The Oklahoma head coach of 31 years had something to say at this year's WCWS about the current format and that she'd like to see a change implemented.
Gasso would like to see the "if necessary" doubleheader game eliminated when teams reach the national semifinal stage of the tournament.
Oklahoma lost to eventual national runner-up Texas Tech in the national semifinals this year and was eliminated from championship contention, but had the Sooners won that game, the current rules call for a second game to immediately follow the same day to determine which team advances to the championship series.
The Sooners did not have to play the "if necessary" WCWS doubleheader elimination game this year, but they have had to go through that tenuous and exhausting process several times in recent seasons.
"Can I go on a soapbox for one second, please, everyone?" Gasso said to reporters during the postgame press conference following the WCWS loss to Texas Tech. "Because I'm old, I don't care what anyone thinks anymore," she quipped.
"I've been in this tournament enough, and there's one thing that has to change, and I've got to say it out loud, and I hope to committee is going to look at this. If we are all about women's athletics and women's sports and rah, rah, do not make us play doubleheaders to get to a national championship series. Don't do that. It should not happen."
If the winner-take-all game is necessary, she said, come back the next day and play it. Don't put both teams into a bind where they're not at their best for such an important game.
To say that's the way it's always been isn't the best excuse, Gasso said.
Oklahoma has had to play three such doubleheader games in the last five seasons the WCWS has been held. In 2019, the Sooners had to defeat Alabama in a second game the same day after losing the first game 1-0. Two years later, OU lost in the opening round to Cinderella James Madison and had to beat them twice the same day, a couple of days later, to move on to the championship series.
And in 2022, the Sooners had to play the second game in a doubleheader against UCLA after falling in the first game in the semifinal round and forcing a winner-take-all second game.
Oklahoma survived all three times and went on to win the national championship, but Gasso feels strongly that it shouldn't have to be that way.
"Please, let's try to change that even if it's going to cost a little bit of extra money," the Sooner head coach concluded. "These athletes deserve it. And thank you very much."