10/18/24 Softball Memo
Good afternoon. I hope this finds all of you doing well on this beautiful October day. I hope that most of you saw the news release regarding the State Softball Tournament moving to a double elimination format in 2026. I am very excited about this news and look forward to planning a great event. A great deal of thanks needs to go to the city of Fort Dodge. They are allocating many resources towards improving the already-amazing Rogers Sports Complex. The future of Iowa high school softball is certainly bright.
In addition to the news about the new tournament format, the IGHSAU Board of Directors also approved three other items that will go into effect for the 2025 softball season.
NEW RUN RULES IN 2024: The run rules will change this season. Games will now end if a team owns a 10-run lead after four innings (or if the home team owns a 10-run lead after 3.5 innings) or owns an eight run lead after five innings (or 4.5 innings if the home team is ahead). The current rule where a game ends if a team owns a 12-run lead after three innings is eliminated.
TEAMS NOW ALLOWED FIVE ADDITIONAL DEFENSiVE CONTACT DAYS: In addition to the 10 days of hitting instruction coaches can provide to players prior to the official start of practice, softball teams are now allotted an additional five days of contact to work on defense for a total of 15 dates. Like the 10 hitting days, coaches will need to file those defensive workout days with their activity directors and these dates cannot take place until after January 1, 2025. Schools may combine defensive work with one of the hitting days, but that will count as two of the 15 contact days.
BOUND POWER RANKINGS TO BE UTILIZED: Beginning this season, Bound softball power rankings will be utilized as the third criteria for determining home sites for regional final games. Under the new criteria, head to head competition and records against common opponents will remain the first two criteria. The Bound power rankings, which uses analytics that factor in schools' strength of schedule, will be the third criteria and eliminates the need for any further criteria.
As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions that you may have in regards to these new changes.
Jason Eslinger
Senior Associate Director/Softball Administrator