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Illinois Schools

Posted by Parent on August 5, 2025, 5:37 pm

How do the programs stack up:

U of I
Illinois State
Eastern Illinois
Western Illinois
UIC

Thoughts?

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by Cletus on August 7, 2025, 10:21 am, in reply to "Illinois Schools"

DePaul has been down but the new coach has injected some energy. They signed a few players from the bandits for 2026

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by I feel ILL on August 7, 2025, 7:37 am, in reply to "Illinois Schools"

Normally, it would be ridiculous to compare a P4 school to any other mid/low major… but Illinois softball has been adrift for quite some time. Great facilities and a fantastic school, but the program is in dire need of a reset. They could use a local to build a fence (a la Brett Bielema), instead of someone who takes recruiting trips to Hawaii and carries their dog around everywhere…

I feel bad for NIU softball, which gets screwed by football moving to the Mountain West. Softball doesn’t move with it, and is instead in the Horizon League now, since the school abandoned the MAC… that’s a substantial step down.

EIU has won some OVC titles of late. UIC has struggled in the MVC, but maybe new coach gets it going in the right direction…

Illinois is by all counts a strong softball state. Its college programs underperform.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by Parent on August 7, 2025, 8:56 am, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

U of I Coaches seem to do a great job developing players, but they just don't seem to recruit well. Agree that it may be time to take a hard look at a change. I had high hopes, in the past, I thought the biggest issue they had was Tyra going bigger, now not so much.

Illinois State had a long-time assistant take over for a long-term head coach a few years back, and it's been a shit show since. Can't imagine she'll last much longer.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by RPI on August 7, 2025, 7:35 am, in reply to "Illinois Schools"

In terms of 2025 NCAA RPI Rankings

#70 Southern Ill
#134 Eastern Ill
#135 U of I
#144 Illinois State
#188 Northern Illinois
#293 UIC
#298 Western Illinois

Out of 309 teams

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by @RPI on August 7, 2025, 10:01 am, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

Dang, it's not great; it certainly doesn't represent the talent level of native Illinois athletes. What would have to change to become more relevant?

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by @ RPI on August 7, 2025, 8:25 am, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

You are missing
SIUE @ #175
Loyola @ #217

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by @ RPI on August 7, 2025, 11:34 am, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

Don't forget who's #1 in Illinois... Northwestern at #48 last year!

Bradley was also #176.

Updated D1 Rankings from https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/ncaa-womens-softball-rpi:

48 - Northwestern
70 - Southern Illinois
134 - Eastern
135 - Illinois
144 - Illinois State
175 - SIU-E
176 - Bradley
188 - Northern Illinois
217 - Loyola
255 - DePaul
293 - UIC
298 - Western Illinois

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by Thoughts? on August 6, 2025, 11:46 am, in reply to "Illinois Schools"

Well I've never really given it a thought. I mean who cares, they all stink.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by Huskie on August 6, 2025, 3:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

Apparently not as bad as NIU, who can't even get a mention.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by GLVC on August 7, 2025, 11:03 am, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

I think 3 of the 4 GLVC softball schools in Illinois could beat the Illinois D1 schools.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by swside fan on August 7, 2025, 12:14 pm, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

On a given day you are probably right.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by @GLVC on August 7, 2025, 12:13 pm, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

Of course you do.

It amazes me how every kid who goes DII or down all of a sudden improves dramatically in college. The DI recruits smoked your kid in travel and high school, but now they're kicking DI ass.

Child, please.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by Witness on August 7, 2025, 3:28 pm, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

I watched a high school team full of D1 talent fail to get out of sectionals. Get off your high horse.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by @Witness on August 7, 2025, 4:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

Parents can believe what they want, but a significant percentage of DI recruits are better softball athletes than the DII and lower .. period. If it helps you to believe that your DII child is one of the outliers, so be it.

Re: Illinois Schools

Posted by @Witness on August 7, 2025, 4:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Illinois Schools"

You're right every GLVC coach is a recruiting genius .

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