College softball’s popularity proves integral to pro league’s success

The GIST: The fifth season of AU Pro Softball will reach its electrifying end on Sunday, when one of the country’s 60 best players will top the leaderboard to become the 2024 champion.

• From expansion to big-time investors, the league’s success reflects softball’s growth into mainstream sports culture — and much of that stems from the college game’s skyrocketing popularity.

The boom: Like NCAA women’s basketball and volleyball, softball has some serious, well-earned momentum — particularly driven by the Women’s College World Series (WCWS). The national tournament’s viewership and social media engagement stats keep rising, and major sports media organizations are taking notice.

• Powerhouse programs like reigning back-to-back-to-back-to-back champs Oklahoma are fueling the sport’s increasing reach. And just like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s NCAA success boosted the WNBA, softball stars are carrying their college attention with them to the pros.

The pipeline: All 60 of this season’s AU Pro Softball players are NCAA alumni, including 16 rookies who hung up their college cleats just last spring — and one of them made her mark on the pros right off the bat: Lexi Kilfoyl.