The high temperature today was below the freezing mark in cities including New York, Chicago, Detroit, Boston and Philly…

In the Carolina’s, it’s dipping into the 20’s tonight and Tennessee, where it’s barely above freezing in Knoxville, is still recovering from a brutal winter storm that has led to a death toll of 29 statewide, authorities say.

We’re not even to Valentine’s Day yet but one thing to rejoice about is that college softball is back.

Thank heaven for tourneys in the warm-weather stats such as the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational in Florida (more on that one in a minute).

The lower divisions such as D2 and D3 kicked off their seasons last weekend but for D1 competition, today is the start of the 2026 season.

Today featured a lot of “Classics” including the Black & Gold Classic, the Tiger Classic, the Kajikawa Classic, the Candrea Classic and so on.

By my count, 17 of the Top 25 teams will have their first games in the books by the end of the day, including a trio in the Top 5: No. 1 Texas Tech, No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 4 Tennessee.

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Many top teams are in the Leadoff Classic running through today through this weekend, with a very diverse lineup of teams covering multiple conferences… the teams include:

• Auburn
• Boston College
• BYU
• Clemson
• Michigan State
• Missouri
• Notre Dame
• Oregon
• Penn State
• Pitt 
• Rutgers
• Tennessee

… and several more. 

Click HERE to see the complete list of games at the Leadoff Classic

Today also sees a pair of  games matching up ranked squads:  

• No. 17 Stanford vs. No. 20 Oklahoma State in the Stanford Invitational 
• No. 14 South Carolina takes on No. 21 Virginia Tech in the Gamecock Invitational.

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It’s not just today, though… it’s all weekend that we can see elite NCAA teams.

Here, courtesy of NCAA.com, are some of the big games taking place the rest of the weekend, the first big one for the 2026 D1 season:

• Texas A&M Tournament – Davis Diamond in College Station, Texas

  • Saturday, Feb. 7
    • Texas Tech vs. Texas A&M | 8 p.m. ET 

• UTSA Invitational – Road Runner Field in San Antonio, Texas

  • Friday, Feb. 6
    • Texas vs. Nebraska | 7:05 p.m. ET
  • Saturday, Feb. 7
    • Texas vs. Nebraska | 4:45 p.m. ET

• Candrea Classic – Hillenbrand Stadium in Tucson, AZ

  • Friday, Feb. 6
    • Oklahoma vs. Arizona | TBA
  • Saturday, Feb. 7 
    • Oklahoma vs. Arizona | TBA
  • Sunday, Feb. 8
    • Oklahoma vs. Arizona | TBA

• Gamecock Invitational – Beckham Field in Columbia, SC

  • Thursday, Feb. 5
    • South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech | 6 p.m. ET
  • Saturday, Feb. 7
    • South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech | 5:30 p.m. ET

• Stanford Invitational – Stanford Softball Stadium in Stanford, Calif

  • Thursday, Feb. 5
    • Stanford vs. Oklahoma State | 9 p.m. ET
  • Saturday, Feb. 7
    • Stanford vs. Oklahoma State | 6:30 p.m. ET

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But it’s not like this is a big weekend and then it quiets down for a month… oh no.

Out of the gates there are some fantastic events and one that really will start the 2026 season off with a bang is the aforementioned Shriners’s Children’s Clearwater Invitational which takes place next weekend (Feb 12-15) and features 16 teams playing 40 games over those four days.

There’s some real star power in those games, too, with notable pitchers to take the circle including Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady, Nebraska’s Jordy (Bahl) Frahm and Tennessee’s Karlyn Pickens (who we just featured yesterday in a story about her picking up an NIL deal).

Here’s are some of the key games to watch for at this fantastic event:

Shriner Children’s Clearwater Invitational – Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, Fla. 

• Thursday, Feb 12
  • Texas Tech vs. Florida State | 1 p.m. ET
• Friday, Feb 13
  • Tennessee vs. Nebraska | 12 p.m. ET
  • Duke vs. Texas A&M | 1 p.m. ET
• Saturday, Feb 14
  • UCLA vs. Tennessee | 4 p.m. ET
  • Georgia vs. Duke | 4 p.m. ET
  • UCLA vs. Florida State | 7 p.m. ET
• Sunday, Feb 15
  • Texas Tech vs. Nebraska | 6 p.m. ET
  • Tennessee vs. Florida State | 8 p.m. ET

Click HERE to see the complete list of games at the Clearwater Invitational.

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If you weren’t aware of it, ESPN owns and operates the tournament and that’s key because those four letters E-S-P-N will be H-U-G-E in college softball this season.

A personal note: I worked at ESPN in Bristol, Conn. about 10 years ago and one stat always stuck with me: even at that time, when ESPN televised the respective College World Series in both baseball and softball, the female version outdrew in viewers by 30%!

I want to say it was a difference of 300,000 viewers more for softball than baseball, but don’t quote me on that.

The point being that ESPN leaders aren’t stupid—they know “softball sells.”

And owning and running one big February tourney isn’t all the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” is doing with D1 college softball.

From today, February 5, 2026, through the WCWS Finals to be played June 3-4 with an “if” game on Friday, June 5—that’s four complete months for those not counting–ESPN will televise about 150 games on what it calls its “linear” network:

• ESPN
• ESPN2
• ESPNU
• SEC Network
• ACC Network

But what is jaw dropping is that the Bristol, Conn.-based company will also televise more than 3,100 other games on the following channels:

• ESPN+
• SEC+
• ACCNX

Additionally, as noted in an ESPN press release:

“Nearly 2,600 regular season games (will be) on ESPN+ … and all 3,200+ games will be available to stream on the ESPN App via ESPN DTC or Pay TV authentication.”

As noted at the top of this article, the D1 season kicks off in earnest today and ESPN+ is all over it with these games featuring Top 25 match-ups to be played through the weekend:

• Feb 5: 25 Washington vs. No. 9 Nebraska (2 p.m.)
• Feb 5: 9 Nebraska vs. No. 1 Texas (7 p.m.)
• Feb 6: 25 Washington vs. No. 9 Nebraska (2 p.m.)
• Feb 6: 9 Nebraska vs. No. 1 Texas (7 p.m.)
• Feb 7: 1 Texas vs. No. 25 Washington (2 p.m.)
• Feb 7: 1 Texas vs. No. 9 Nebraska (4:30 p.m.)
• Feb 8: 25 Washington vs. No. 9 Nebraska (11 a.m.)
• Feb 8: 25 Washington vs. No. 1 Texas (1:30 p.m.)

What Super Bowl?

With the thousands of games to be aired on ESPN Networks, it’s not surprising that the broadcast behemoth is all over the Conference Championships taking play in May and then the run to the championship series.

As the company accurately puts it:

“ESPN is once again the exclusive home of the NCAA Division I Softball postseason, from the Selection Show to every pitch of the NCAA Women’s College World Series at Devon Park in Oklahoma City, Okla. (May 28-June 4/5).”

It will be a great year featuring the best in the softball collegiate space and you have to tip your cap to ESPN for putting on air so many games that would have just been televised locally, if at all.

For now, let’s just enjoy today’s match-ups, this weekend’s action on the fields and the huge tourney next weekend in Clearwater.

Crappy weather in much of the country notwithstanding, it’s time to enjoy the best time of the year for college softball fans!

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball