CATHEDRAL CITY – The second-largest community in the Coachella Valley will serve as home base for the nation’s largest and most prestigious preseason college softball tourney Feb. 21-24.
The Coachella Valley is home to some of the classiest and most prestigious events, including the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Coachella, Stagecoach, and others. Still, it is estimated that the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic brings in more revenue to Coachella Valley businesses than every other event except the Bob Hope PGA Classic. More than 25,000 visitors attended the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in 2017.
The Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, which features more than 25 top Division I softball teams, is celebrating its 16th year in Cathedral City. The lineup of teams includes UCLA, Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, North Carolina, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oregon, plus many more.
All softball games will be played at Big League Dreams Sports Park, 33700 Date Palm Drive.
“The location for the event was centered around the facility and weather,” Kirk Walker, owner of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic , told Uken Report. “I started the tournament while I was coaching at Oregon State, but I had grown up in Southern California and knew the weather and the Big League Dreams complex could be a great fit for a college tournament in February when weather even in Los Angeles and San Diego was far more unpredictable.”
Walker, an assistant softball coach at UCLA, added, “I also believed the Palm Springs/Cathedral City and desert communities would value the opportunity to have high-level collegiate athletics annually and benefit economically from the influx of softball fans from across the country that would come to such a great destination in February.”
Softball coach Mary Nutter died of heart failure on July 24, 2012, while on vacation in Colorado. She was a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Every softball game of the Mary Nutter Classic will be available live and via replay exclusively here via FloPRO subscription, which offers unfettered access to live and archived footage of top club and college softball events, original documentaries on stars of the sport, a library of technique videos, and more.
Teams are selected and invited to create the highest rating percentage index, commonly known as the RPI, event in the country as well as creating a diverse regional mix of teams representing the entire country. The RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team’s wins and losses and its strength of schedule. It is one of the sports rating systems by which NCAA basketball, baseball, softball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball teams are ranked.
