Editor's note: The following was first published on D1 Softball and includes the top 100 players. You can subscribe to the site here.
With softball right around the corner, the D1 staff came together to rank the top 100 players heading into the 2023 season. The crew discussed the list with the goal to identify the best and most valuable college softball players for the 2023 season.
Jocelyn Alo passed the torch to Tiare Jennings in multiple ways, including being our top-ranked player. It shouldn’t shock anyone that Oklahoma, the two-time defending national champions, have the most players on the list with 10 and eight in the top 26. UCLA comes in second with six, including the lone freshman on the list, Megan Grant.
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The SEC has the most players of any conference with 28 names, including Alabama’s Montana Fouts, Tennessee’s Kiki Milloy and Arkansas’ Hannah Gammill. The Pac-12 has 18, the Big 12 has 16 and the ACC has 12. The Big Ten has eight players, with Northwestern’s Danielle Williams being the top-ranked player from the conference.
The Sun Belt has four players, the most from a non-Power Five conference. All three players from the American Athletic Conference – Wichita State teammates Addison Barnard and Sydney McKinney and UCF’s Jada Cody — can all be found in the top 20 players. Conference USA, the Summit League, the West Coast Conference, Mountain West, Big West, MAC, America East and Ohio Valley Conference are all represented as well.
The era of softball is reflected in our list, with only 29 players that pitch making the top 100 compared to 71 position players.
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| Rank | Player | School | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiare Jennings | Oklahoma | 2B |
| 2 | Kelly Maxwell | Oklahoma State | P |
| 3 | Addison Barnard | Wichita State | OF |
| 4 | Grace Lyons | Oklahoma | SS |
| 5 | Baylee Klingler | Washington | 3B |
| 6 | Cydney Sanders | Oklahoma | 1B |
| 7 | Megan Faraimo | UCLA | P |
| 8 | Kathryn Sandercock | Florida State | P |
| 9 | Jordy Bahl | Oklahoma | P |
| 10 | Montana Fouts | Alabama | P |
| 11 | Danielle Williams | Northwestern | P |
| 12 | Kiki Milloy | Tennesee | OF |
| 13 | Hannah Gammill | Arkansas | 3B |
| 14 | Jada Cody | UCF | UTL |
| 15 | Jayda Coleman | Oklahoma | OF |
| 16 | Skylar Wallace | Florida | SS |
| 17 | Valerie Cagle | Clemson | P/UTL |
| 18 | Sydney McKinney | Wichita State | SS |
| 19 | Yanni Acuña | Arizona State | OF |
| 20 | Kinzie Hansen | Oklahoma | C |