Welcome to Year 3 of the College Softball Blog!

I always like to start each season with a photo. The one above features me in my office at Texas Tech University, standing alongside two softball schedule posters I have up on the wall, for last year's Arizona and Texas Tech squads.

As always, the initial, nonconference, weeks of the schedule are dominated by tournaments in warm-weather locales. A little bit of play begins today, with more action getting underway Friday and Saturday. Here are some highlights, with links to tournament websites...

UNLV tourney, featuring among others Arizona State, Washington, and Texas Tech (the two Pac-10 teams will not meet).

Oregon State, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are in the Cathedral City Kick-Off.

Oklahoma is among the teams participating in UCLA's tourney.

Finally, Michigan and UMass are in the field for the Florida Atlantic University Kick-Off Classic in Boca Raton.

For a comprehensive list of all games taking place this weekend, go to Ultimate College Softball (see the links section to the right), then select UCS Forum, and then Scoreboard.