ucla

Stunning news:

OFFICIAL: USC will join the Big Ten Conference in 2024.

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) June 30, 2022

Stunning news, but in basketball:

news! UCLA is joining the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2024-25 season!

➡️: https://t.co/ygoY70o2bo#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/Cgj5orGhiI

— UCLA Athletics (@UCLAAthletics) June 30, 2022

Broken today by Jon Wilner, at least two, and potentially more major Pac12 schools will join the Big Ten in two years. Clearly timed to coincide with the Big Ten renegotiating its TV rights deals, and meant to compete with the SEC's addition of Texas and Oklahoma, the move turns the Big Ten into a coast-to-coast conference of 16 with a third power program football. It also renders the Pac (back to) Ten something akin to what the Big XII will be when their two marquee programs leave in 2025, and almost certainly will precipitate more realignment.

The Big Ten had a bylaw that any schools they add be in neighboring states, but that was swiftly gotten around. Both schools were part of the Pac and its previous iteration, the Pacific Coast Conference, going back a century.

For Michigan students spring break is halfway done and coincidentally Michigan Softball's spring break tour of Southern California is halfway complete as well. This past weekend was the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, CA, and this upcoming weekend will be the Louisville Slugger Tournament in Los Angeles, CA, hosted by UCLA.

With six games already having been played, this week's Softball Roundup column will be heavy on game recaps and the weekend preview, while lighter on national talk and overall thoughts about the trajectory of the season (that will wait for next week, after the spring break tour is done). But now let's jump right into the recaps

Last Weekend: Where's the offense? (13-6)

Game 1: Loyola Marymount 2, Michigan 1

Welp. Your author referred to this game as the "ease in to the weekend" game a week ago and that... did not happen. The good news? Meghan Beaubien began what was a dominant weekend in style in this game, having one inning get away from her (the second) but was otherwise impeccable. That second inning in particular stung, as Beaubien had no-on and two outs before proceding to allow back-to-back singles, followed by a walk to the #9 hitter, letting the .500-hitting Molly Grumbo come up and she hit a 2 RBI single.

Michigan took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on an Abby Skvarce RBI single but otherwise could do nothing against hurler Linnay Wilson. The Wolverines hit a lot of balls hard but the Lions' defense produced web gem after web gem to keep the lead intact. Despite retiring the final 15 batters she faced, and the Michigan offense not striking out until the 7th, the Wolverines still had no answer and stranded the game-tying runner at second in the final frame, losing a stinger 2-1.

Game 2: Texas 1, Michigan 0

If you want deja vu, I've got deja vu for you. Michigan seemed to get a stroke of luck in facing Longhorn #2 starter Shaelyn O'Leary, instead of ace Miranda Elish. That didn't seem to matter however, as the 4 Michigan hits over 7 innings they'd get off of O'Leary would translate into nothing on the scoreboard. The first three innings were perfection from both sides, with Beaubien and O'Leary dueling in dominance, 18 up and 18 down.

The Wolverines would leave 2 on in the fourth and seventh, as well as another runner on in the fifth, getting shut out through seven frames. Meanwhile Meghan Beaubien did not allow a base runner until the sixth, but in that inning gave up a lead-off double and two sacrifices brought the run in. That's all that Texas would need to win the game. It's hard to understate how much it hurts to lose a game where your pitcher pitches as well as she did in this game but Texas manufactured a run and Michigan could not. End of the story.

Game 3: Michigan 8, Texas Tech 2

After being silenced for so long, the Michigan bats finally arose in this game. Against excellent pitcher Erin Edmoundson, Julia Jimenez hit a lead-off HR (her first career HR) and then Michigan tacked 6 on in the bottom of the 2nd to lead 7-0 by the end of that frame. They got up to run rule territory in the 4th with an 8-0 lead before Texas Tech dodged that mark with 2 in the bottom half.

Alex Storako went 7 innings allowing 2 hits and 3 walks, collecting 13 strikeouts in the process. She was overall very sharp and Texas Tech's defense was rough, allowing 4 errors, with things particularly cascading in that second inning. The big story for Michigan offensively was Lexie Blair having a four hit game to break the slide and the Wolverines finally put it together for an 8-run win.

Game 4: Washington 10, Michigan 2

When you're facing the #2 team in the country, you need everything to go right. Everything did not in fact, go right on this day. When I was handed the lineup sheet in the Anderson Family Field press box, I was scratching my head as to why Alex Storako was starting in the circle and not Meghan Beaubien against a mighty Washington lineup, given the impressive stuff we had seen from Beaubien.

The first inning immediately confirmed those fears. The Huskies had hung 7 runs on Michigan by the end of the second inning, 4 of them coming on another crucial HR allowed by Storako, and it again came with two strikes. Though Michigan tacked 2 on the board in the bottom of the first against Washington ace Gabbie Plain, pitching placed them in such a huge hole that they failed to ever recover.

After Storako was bounced we saw Lauren Esman in her first NCAA start in the circle, as well as Chandler Dennis. Both freshmen were effectively wild and did a decent job to keep the ship together, but you just can't get bombed against a top 5 team and expect to win. Michigan got bombed and did not win.

Game 5: Michigan 1, Colorado State 0

The final game in Fullerton was a replay of the Texas and Loyola Marymount games. Meghan Beaubien was in the circle and (surprise) she dominated again. Over 7 shutout innings she allowed just four hits (and just one was a hard hit ball, to my recollection), meanwhile allowing one walk and collecting 14 strikeouts. Michigan got doubles in the second and fourth innings but stranded those, going all the way down to the final frame before breaking the tie.

With extras and the tiebreaker rule about to come into play, senior Madison Uden stroked a two-out solo HR to walk it off for the Wolverines. It was not a no doubter from my vantage point, rather being a ball that carried and carried until it was over the fence. Michigan salvaged the Judi Garman, but still went a disappointing 2-3.

Game 6: Michigan 4, St. John's 2

Like the Texas Tech game, MIchigan got out to a fast start and then mostly let Alex Storako do the work. They got runs via an error and a Uden single in the first to go ahead 2-0, then tacked two more on in the second thanks to a Lou Allan RBI single, helped out by an error. Storako surrendered a HR in the second and another run in the third but limited the Red Storm to 2 runs over 7 innings, racking up 15 strikeouts in the process. Michigan's offense went cold after putting up the four runs in the first two frames, but that proved to be enough with Storako in charge.

[AFTER THE JUMP: a few takes and more previews]

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I wondered when someone would notice. There are a lot of games at night now. So many that it might be smart to…

Fox will have its best game of the day will be at noon every Saturday.

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 13, 2019

…yeah, that. Michigan should feature frequently in that slot, and as a person who likes to get home and see the end of the 3:30 games and then the night games I'm all about that. If your priority is encompassing all the madness of a college football Saturday, noon is the slot for you.

Doing the math. Numbers from the new media rights deal:

Big Ten had nearly $759 million in revenue in FY18, new federal tax return shows. That's up from nearly $513 million last year. It's also $100 million more than amount SEC reported for FY18: https://t.co/Xs4icAPcAG

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) May 15, 2019

That is 13.7 million per school. Michigan could pay every one of their approximately 700 scholarship athletes 20k a year based on this jump alone. If restricted to the ~100 players on the two main revenue sports that's 140k a year.

Nico Collins under the microscope. Combining Josh Gattis with this guy could be shades of Allen Robinson and Chris Godwin:

Hail Warinner. To go from last year to this is incredible.

Here are the highest-graded returning pass blockers along B1G interior offensive lineman. pic.twitter.com/zKK66BFfsU

— PFF College (@PFF_College) May 9, 2019

Find a tackle and Michigan's set to be a lethal passing attack.

[After THE JUMP: UCLA is incredible]