The future of our once elite women's sports

I feel like gymnastics is in a decline and softball is about the same, but everyone else in the SEC has caught up. We can't get any offense going and it seems like a yearly trend

They did win the national title after he reneged on LSU.

But yea, we've been in a holding pattern for a while and the rest of the SEC has caught/passed us.

Does the state of Alabama produce quality athletes in either of these two?
I was assuming the state did not, thus why we may be suffering a bit more now with other states ramping up their programs.

Very dumb thread lol , I couldn't agree more

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This thread is dumb

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Why?

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What Nick Saban has done with the football program has altered the state of reality for y'all.

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The only reason this thread exists is because these 2 programs, softball and gymnastics, set a standard that they are not currently reaching. Nick Saban has zero to do with it. Now, like I specifically asked, perhaps these two programs set a bar that is not fair to be expected to be reached consistently. That has nothing to do with Alabama football. Gymnastics, specifically, was establishing and continuing a standard of excellence while Nick Saban was at Toledo.

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We haven't taken home any huge hardware but that doesn't necessarily mean we are 'sliding' as a program either.

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We are clearly just one of a handful of good programs in the SEC, led alone nationally, in both sports now. That was kind of the point of the thread - is this the new normal and can it be expected to return to the days of the past when anything less than a SEC Title + National Title/National Runner Up was a failure.

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I'm not sure why people consider threads stupid just because it's a different opinion. That's a pretty narrow minded way of viewing things

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It's not even really an opinion but an opening to a discussion.

It's a fact that we are no longer the top dog (or one of 2 along with Florida in softball and UGA in gym) in either sport. We are 1 of 4-5 programs near the top. That's not debatable. It's also not debatable that our performance on the largest stage isn't as good as it was at both programs peaks.

The question is : is it fair to expect that?

Softball program (since the national championship in 2012)

2012 - 60-8 (23-5 SEC) National Champs; SEC reg. & tournament champs

2013 - 45-15 (13-11 SEC) Preseason #1/1; final 9/10 (lost to Florida in the SEC tournament)

2014 - 53-13 (19-5 SEC) SEC reg. champs (lost to Georgia sec game & lost to Florida in the national champ game; final rank #2)

2015 - 48-15 (17-7 SEC) finished tied for 5th; (lost to Auburn in SEC tournament)

2016 - 51-12 (17-8 SEC) finished tied for 7th (lost to Auburn in the SEC tournament)

2017 - 47-17 (12-11 SEC) finished 15/16 (lost to Ole Miss in the SEC tournament)

Last year, 2017, and 2013 were the worse seasons since 2004 when Alabama went 45-20 reg. season and 18-12 in the SEC.

Bama was a trendsetter in both sports. We set the bar early on and few could meet it. That has changed. We now have much more competition in both sports. We haven’t slipped, everyone else has caught up. And we haven’t improved. Gymnastics will never be the same without Sara Patterson. She was an icon.
Softball is a little different. Murphy is sticking to his old formula of riding one or two good pitchers as far as he can with good defense added. Runs are a secondary concern. It’s not working as well as it used to and he hasn’t changed...yet. He’d better wake up and adapt because quite a few SEC teams have caught us and are passing us.