College Baseball Personality Questions ESPN’s Softball Re-Air After Weather Schedule Change

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SOFTBALLONSI

Nebraska upset Texas Tech on Sunday in Clearwater. | Nebraska Athletics

With the college softball and baseball seasons in full swing, ESPN's broadcasting schedule just got tighter.

Due to inclement weather at the annual Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational on Sunday, several softball games had to be moved around in order to complete the tournament. This meant one of the most-anticipated matchups between then-No.1 Texas Tech and then-No. 13 Nebraska got pushed from being on ESPN at 5 p.m. CT to 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

After Nebraska completely upset Texas Tech in a three-run fourth inning, where Jesse Farrell launched a game-tying two-run homer, and Hannah Coor initiated the game-winning RBI, ESPN re-aired the win during its original time slot, instead of airing something different. 

Noah Darling, the founder of the site College Baseball Central, called out ESPN on social media, which started a heated conversation among baseball and softball viewers.

“Good on ESPN. Why broadcast a live college baseball game at any point this weekend when you could instead air a rerun of a softball game,” he wrote on X.

Softball fans chirped back immediately, pointing out that the 2025 Women’s College World Series saw a record-breaking number of views. The championship game between the Texas Longhorns and Texas Tech Red Raiders drew an all-time high average of 2.4 million viewers. The series saw a 24 percent increase in viewership over 2024, averaging 1.3 million viewers per game. This outdrew the Men’s College World Series, which saw 1.2 million viewers per game. 

“Probs has to do with this,” ESPN and ACC Network broadcaster Brittany McKinney posted. 

The Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational, owned and operated by ESPN Events, has been a staple tournament in college softball for seven years, where several Power 4’s look to gain competitive experience as soon as the season begins. 

“How many top 25 matchups did baseball produce today? ZERO. On the weekend, there were 3 all on FloBaseball. ESPN bought into this particular softball tournament bc teams agreed to play through the competition early. If baseball wants the slots, they have to make it worth it to ESPN,” Ashley Taylor posted to X. 

Due to the rising popularity of softball, 2026 will mark a record-setting number of softball games on ESPN, with 16 top matchups across the network, while 24 out of ESPN’s/USA Softball’s preseason Top 25 teams will make an appearance on the platform throughout the regular season. Fifty-five of those regular-season games will feature top preseason teams like No. 3 Texas (14 games), No. 2 Texas Tech (10 games), No. 4 Oklahoma (15 games), and No. 1 Tennessee (15 games). 

ESPN will also cover conference championships and the WCWS again, so there's no better time than now to start tuning in to the sport.