Harper Murray is a famous volleyball player; she plays on the Nebraska Volleyball college team.  Harper Murray is an outside hitter for the Huskers. She wore the number 27 in honor of her dad, an NFL player who also wore the number 27, who passed away due to lung cancer when she was 6 years old. His death changed how she viewed life and handled situations. After her dad’s death, as a 6 year old, she often felt anxious and worried.

She started playing volleyball in early elementary school, and it became a passion for her in 6th grade.  She quickly became a successful high school player before being recruited to play for The University of Nebraska in the year 2022. 

In an interview from December 2023, Harper says, referring to the University of Nebraska’s volleyball team, “I think we're going to win three national championships the next three years,” which made many people on the internet comment on their disapproval of her confidence. This led to her getting a lot of hate with people calling her bratty, also saying she needed to be humbled, and there were people telling her to kill herself. Due to the hate, she fell into a really bad spot in her life; her mental health declined. She was skipping class, got arrested for DUI; she was caught shoplifting; she was so depressed that she and her family thought she would take her own life, and then she went to a psychiatric emergency room. Because of everything that happened, as a freshman in college, she was removed from the U.S. Volleyball’s Under - 21 National Women’s Team and was suspended from Nebraska's Spring Exhibition Match; she then had to work for the Huskers’ Youth Volleyball Camps for community service.

Harper had to overcome a lot of obstacles about her mental health; fortunately, she had people close to her that  helped and supported her through hard times. Nebraska did not end up winning the national championship in 2023 or 2024. In the 2023 season, Harper Murray got a total of 391 kills, 36 aces, and 462 total points, she was named the “Big Ten Freshman of the Year” and earned AVCA North Region Freshman of the Year. 

Harper is still playing for the Nebraska team in the 24-25 season while also focusing on her mental health and recovering from her past legal issues. Harper tries to normalize talking about mental health issues in young athletes and has a therapy team, she is actively focused on healing and growing. She also was featured in an ESPN sports story, Nebraska Volleyball star Harper Murray focuses on healing, normalizing the difficult conversation about mental health issues.  

Work Cited

“Nebraska Volleyball’s Harper Murray Trying to Regain Trust, Recapture Love.” ESPN.Com, 19 Dec. 2024, https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/40991137/nebraska-volleyball-harper-murray-returns-arrest-offseason-mental-health. 

Softball, the female counterpart to Baseball, lacks a professional league today. Not many people talk about the lack of a professional softball league on a large scale unlike other emerging leagues like the WNBA. The sport also lacks consistent Olympic representation. There have been drives in the past for both an Olympic sport for Softball and a pro league, but these attempts for a women’s league at the professional level fell apart and lacked any meaningful support. So, why has Softball been disrespected and relegated to a college-only sport? Is it possible Softball can make a return to the professional scene? If it becomes a professional sport, will it be profitable enough to support its players financially?

Softballs Popularity With America's Youth

Throughout the United States, Softball is the most popular sport amongst women between ages 6-18 being the most popular in many schools as well. Softball's popularity resulted in many leagues for travel along with Baseball. Many high schools also sponsor Softball teams and have no issue filling teams with players. The sport has continued to grow throughout the years in youth involvement as numbers by TeamSnap, a sports documentation website, noticed a 21% increase in player count from 2018-2019 and despite an estimated decline during covid-19, it’s estimated that the statistics have once again began to increase. With the serious growth in popularity, it begs the question:  why does the support for Softball end after college, and why can't the sport seem to consistently stay in the Olympics?

A League of Their Own

A League of Their Own, a 1992 film, discussed the story of a softball league founded during WW2 as the MLB struggled to maintain its players because men were being drafted into the war. The film’s league is based on the real women's league that existed during that period the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) The league was likely the most successful softball league of all time; however, after the wars conclusion and the rise of television, the league lost a lot of its footing and profitability as well as viewers resultings in its eventually dismemberment in 1954, after a little over a decade of operation.  Professional Softball leagues have not had success since  the early peaks of the AAGPBL. 

Olympics and Failed Pro Leagues

The Olympics first added Softball to the lineup for the 1996 Olympics but it was cut in 2008 due to a lack of participation from the international community. While Softball would return to the Olympics in 2020, it would once again be cut in 2024. While the sport is eyeing a 2028 return due to its popularity in the states where the Olympics is being held, its future is up in the air after. Participation and viewership issues have been considerable for the Olympic program, and Softball lacks a significant support base to stay a contender in Olympic inclusion even though many players still want a chance to participate and have a chance to win gold in the sport. It's not a very different story for old Softball pro leagues either. MLS Major League Softball and NPF National Pro FastPitch most recently collapsed during 2021 because of issues during the pandemic but the leagues had already been struggling, meaning teams folding and being founded like whack-a-mole  leaving no real certainty for the leagues. Profits have been incredibly low for these leagues and the new league incoming for 2025’s AUSL Athletes Unlimited Softball League to come onto the scene. 

The Newest Pro Softball League

AUSL is attempting to create a small scale league to condense the talent with hopes of expanding if more money comes in. Many past leagues remained afloat due to partnership with the MLB, but this league - at the moment - lacks support. The league will take place during the summer of 2025 from June 3rd to July 25th. With this in mind, the league will look to continue growing in the future and could possibly take the upheld mantle for pro Softball moving forward.

What does Softball Need to Stay Relevant?

Many Softball leagues have struggled due to money concerns not due to player count. There is no shortage of Softball players especially at the college level with major support for the collegiate level of the sport for some time. This can be a huge factor in why the pro leagues continue to fail. Collegiate Softball overshadows any attempts at professional leagues to grow.  Another question is: with the beginnings of NIL and pay for play in the NCAA allowing schools to pay athletes, is a professional league even necessary for the sport? In the Olympic setting, the sport continues to fluctuate in its inclusion, but things seem to be looking up as the Olympics continue to expand; it’s not likely that Softball will be consistent in the Olympics as the sport only retains  popularity in the USA and Japan. The future of Softball likely rests in the hands of College Softball and the Olympics meaning professional Softball will continue to have a turbulent future for years to come. 

Sources

“Softball By The Numbers: Understanding The Softball Youth Softball 

Landscape - TeamSnap Blog.” TeamSnap, 4 May 2022, https://www.teamsnap.com/blog/clubs-leagues/understand-the-softball-youth-softball-landscape.

“National Pro Fastpitch.” Wikipedia, 17 Mar. 2025. Wikipedia, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Pro_Fastpitch&oldid=1280889040.

“Athletes Unlimited Launches New pro Softball League in USA.” World 

Baseball Softball Confederation, http://www.wbsc.org/en/news/athletes-unlimited-launches-new-pro-softball-league-in-usa. Accessed 19 Mar. 2025.

“Softball at the Summer Olympics.” Wikipedia, 12 Mar. 2025. Wikipedia, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Softball_at_the_Summer_Olympics&oldid=1280155258.

Yes, she is. She came into the WNBA dominating and unintentionally becoming an enemy of almost every player. Even when she was still in college, and there were rumors about her joining the league, almost every star knocked and tried to diminish her skills, the most prominent person being Diana Tarasu, the alleged goat of the WNBA.

Caitlin Clark's rookie season in the WNBA was nothing short of historic. Drafted No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in 2024, she quickly established herself as one of the league's most dynamic players by starting in all 40 regular-season games. Clark averaged 19.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game, leading the league in assists and setting a new single-season record with 337 assists. She also broke the rookie record for points (769) and three-pointers made (122), also becaming the first rookie in WNBA history to record a triple-double and set a new single-game assist record with 19 assists. Her incredible performance earned her the 2024 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year award, getting 66 out of 67 votes. Additionally, Caitlin Clark was named to the All-WNBA First Team and led the Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016. Her remarkable debut season has set a new standard for excellence in the league, and her success has upset a lot of players including the WNBA goat, Diana Taurasi.

Diana Taurasi has many accolades in basketball winning three championships, an MVP, two finals MVPs, and achieved five scoring titles in her career. No matter what, she is a great player; along with her accolades, in her career she averaged 18.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists leading her team to many finals and winning 6 olympic gold medals and 3 FIBA World Cups. On the court, she was a player only rivaled by other WNBA goats and her actions during the game made the rivalries more intense. WIthin this passion for the love of basketball, she fought with many people, teammates included, resulting in ejections and suspensions and she even earned the name “Dirty Diana” because of her poor sportsmanship and inappropriate moves on the court. In the past, she's fought teammates, pushed referees, and said many things in press conferences which made her greatly disliked, and when she said those things about an upcoming star, she got even more hate as she is always supportive using her charities to support young girls until Caitlin Clark was about to enter the league. 

After hearing the criticism and hate, Caitlyn proceeded to have a record breaking Rookie season and changed the WNBA, getting players better accommodations such as better flights, hotels, food, and buses when they are traveling for an away game. Because of this, many people think that Taurasi and the other WNBA players should show less hostility and resentment towards her as 17% of flagrant fouls in the previous season were committed against Caitlyn, a large percentage coming from the Chicago Sky. 

Caitlin Clark has a huge ceiling and she's proven that she is better than a lot of the other players in the WNBA. She doesn’t let the doubters and haters affect how she plays or how she acts on or off the court. 

It’s finally here after ten long years. EA College Football has made its grand return to the sports video game scene! In all the flurry of excitement, I posed myself a question: how will the launch of EA College Football affect the sales of EA’s Madden 25- which has been the dominant football game for over a decade. 

The last college football game to come out was NCAA Football 14 which was released on the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3. NCAA Football has historically enjoyed massive success; this is shown by its long tenure on the top 20 best selling games of the year chart from 2002-2014.  The franchise was then promptly discontinued. NCAA Football’s best placement was 3rd in 2006 and its worst placement was 20th in 2009. But its competitor Madden Football has always been ranked higher. It was a multitime best seller and outselling NCAA Football by quite the margin. But I think that this year the sales will change, mainly due to the hype-train surrounding the return of the franchise and the recent scrutiny seen by the past Madden games.

 What are the meat and potatoes of the most recent entries for both of the respective titles? The enthusiasm behind College Football 25 has been like no other. It was recorded that College Football 25 sold 2.2 million premium early access copies which ended up totaling over $500 million in sales (which also includes all the copies sold for the beta). 600,000 people also took advantage of the early access trial bringing the total up to 2.8 million downloads and the projected best selling game of 2024. The reviews surrounding the game have also been mostly positive, especially because it feels fresh and new, unlike Madden where it feels like the same game with a different number on the front every year. “The speed, playbooks, styles, hit physics, catch, juke, and spin animations make for a crazy good combination of football goodness. The Wear-and-Tear system is robust and, quite honestly, could’ve been even bolder and not been too much.”(Mazique, 10).

Madden 25 is right behind College Football though with it selling 1 million copies in its first week on the market and skyrocketing to the top of the August best selling games list. However, the reviews are negative, community members are once again calling EA lazy and that they don’t care about their player base. They continue to not listen to community feedback and churn out whatever they want. I too think that Madden is especially underwhelming  this year. Maybe it is due to College Football’s success, but Madden feels unfinished and the AI logic is horrible. The disappointing AI continues, echoing the many complaints about illogical AI  from past games. A couple examples of this include the AI’s inability to run a proper defensive angle to get a tackle, they also at random will just decide to not do the input the user tells them to do. The graphics do look much better and the crowd is much more noticeable, but it still feels like the past 5-6 Madden titles. 

Both of these games have pros and cons mostly in regard to their janky online play. The main problems revolve around defense feeling like it is impossible to play due to peoples’ ping levels. If the person you are playing has a better internet connection then you, that person immediately has the upper hand due to the fact that their players are going to be much more responsive; therefore, they can make a play before your players can even respond. But overall, College Football 25 is a quality game that is on pace to finally beat out Madden 25 on the top 20 games of the year. Although the question is if this change in the tide will be good or bad for the sports gaming industry.

Sources:

EA Sports College Football 25 is already the best-selling game of 2024. (2024, August 22). Sportsbusinessjournal.com. https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/08/22/ea-sports-college-football-25-july-sales

Best-Selling Games Of Each Of The Past 25 Years In The US. (n.d.). GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/best-selling-games-of-each-of-the-past-25-years-in-the-us/2900-5031/

Mazique, B. (2024, July 19). EA College Football 25 Review: The Good, The Bad And The Bottom Line. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/games/2024/07/19/ea-college-football-25-review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-bottom-line/