With a new season of collegiate softball starting in a matter of weeks, it is time for preseason polls to arrive and provide plenty of early season fodder. For Clemson Softball, it means starting on the outside looking in.
The ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll was released, and it does not include the Clemson Tigers. This would mark the first time Clemson has not appeared in a preseason poll since its inaugural season of 2020. The team does appear in the “receiving votes” section (21 votes), priming them for a potential climb back into the mix very early into the 2025 season.
The Tigers will have plenty of opportunities to make their case for future polls, with a plethora of teams from the Top 25 appearing on their 2025 schedule. The first game against a Top 25 foe will come against #15 Missouri in the Clearwater Invitational on February 16th. Later, Clemson will host #14 Georgia on February 25th inside McWhorter Stadium. The Tigers will then open ACC play at home with a three game series against #8 and defending conference champion Duke. A weekend visit to #23 Stanford on April 4th is followed shortly by a trip to Rocky Top to play a midweek game against #5 Tennessee on April 22nd.
Joining the Tigers in the “receiving votes” section of the preseason poll are Ole Miss (17 votes), Auburn (8), Kentucky (5), and South Carolina (3), all of whom coach John Rittman’s Clemson Softball Tigers’ are scheduled to play at some point this season.
Clemson Softball will kick off the 2025 season on February 2nd in the annual Orange vs. Purple Scrimmage, followed by a visit to Boca Roton, Florida for the Paradise Classic against Ole Miss.
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Note: On January 29th, Clemson was voted as #25 in the NFCA Preseason Softball Poll. This marks the only preseason poll Clemson is ranked, but continues the streak of the Tigers being ranked in a preseason poll since the year after the program’s inception in 2020, making it 5 years in a row.
