James Madison Softball was preparing for a breakthrough 2018 season, looking to make the Women's College World Series under the leadership of coach Mickey Dean and ace pitcher Megan Good.

Suddenly, plans changed. This week, Mickey Dean was named the new manager of Auburn Softball, replacing Clint Myers.

After Coach Myers retired in August with his program in turmoil, the Auburn athletics department went looking for a new coach. The result was hiring respected coach Mickey Dean to help right the ship of a program that is accustomed to playing for the WCWS Title.

This is not the first major move since the end of the 2017 NCAA Softball season. Jessica Allister left Minnesota after a magical season to become the new head coach at her alma mater, Stanford, a Pac-12 school.

Now, Coach Dean has left JMU for an SEC school. What do these two items have in common?

Could The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Be Setting A Dangerous Precedent?

The sport of college softball continues to grow in popularity thanks to television exposure and increased quality of play.

Now there is so much attention on the NCAA tournament -- and especially the WCWS in Oklahoma City -- that the pressure has risen dramatically on coaches to make a splash in the postseason. Unfortunately, the 2017 NCAA tournament committee put Minnesota, James Madison, and even Louisiana Lafayette in unfair position in the postseason.

Reason could argue whether JMU and Lafayette should have been regional hosts. These were two teams with impressive resumes, top-15 rankings throughout the season, and superstars Megan Good and D.J. Sanders, respectively. But there is no argument that will ever make logical sense why No. 1 Minnesota was shut out as regional host. That decision set the wrong tone for the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

It also set a dangerous precedent for college coaches.

If you're Jessica Allister at Minnesota, what else can you do? Last year was the best season in Minnesota softball history. They played -- and won -- a ridiculous number of road games, went 54-3 in the regular season, and they were absolutely dominant with a combination of pitching and hitting. Yet they were snubbed as regionals host and sent across the country to Alabama to play WCWS-level games in the first round of the tournament.

After reaching an amazing level of regular season success and then not being rewarded for it in the postseason, it added yet another reason for coach Allister to move to a Pac-12 school.

The same applies to coach Dean at James Madison.

JMU played -- and beat -- numerous Power Five schools throughout the regular season. They had a dominant ace, Megan Good, and powerful hitting to back her up. Yet the Dukes were also snubbed as regional hosts. They were sent to Texas to challenge a very good Baylor team that eventually beat Arizona to make the WCWS.

2018 Softball Season: Competitive Balance in Question

Looking ahead to 2018, the combination of coach Dean and Megan Good in her senior year could have led JMU to the best regular season in program history. Yet, based on what happened to Minnesota, there is no guarantee that being the No. 1 team in the country will get you a regional host nod -- unless you're in a major softball conference.

With that information in front of coach Dean, he had to take the opportunity of a lifetime moving to SEC power Auburn.

"Coach Dean's accomplishments at JMU are remarkable," said Auburn AD Jay Jacobs in this week's announcement. "He's won consistently at every level throughout his career. He's done it the right way, winning with class and integrity while graduating his student-athletes at a high level. Auburn already has a winning program and we're going to get even better. He's a great fit for Auburn."

Mickey Dean now has a big challenge turning around a program that made the wrong kind of news throughout the 2017 season.

Future NCAA Tournament committees also have a big challenge righting the wrongs of the 2017 committee. By not rewarding teams like Minnesota, JMU, and Lafayette for excellent regular seasons, it sends a message to coaches that if you want to have a better chance of playing for the big prize, you eventually have to move to a bigger school.

For softball to continue growing, there should be more opportunities for schools outside of the Pac-12, SEC, Big 12, and ACC to have a fair chance of making the WCWS. That's what makes the NCAA Basketball Tournament so great -- a team like Gonzaga from a smaller conference had a fair chance to make the NCAA Title game earlier this year.

The next step for college softball will be creating a fairer path for non-traditional schools to make the WCWS. This is not a suggestion of handing out regional host sites to just anyone. A team should merit the nod, which Minnesota absolutely did.

It will also ensure that coaches at these schools stay longer, build better programs, and continue to help the sport grow by creating more competition outside of the traditional Pac-12 and SEC regions. There's no faulting Mickey Dean leaving JMU for Auburn or Jessica Allister leaving Minnesota for Stanford. They followed the current path to WCWS opportunities.

As the sport continues to grow, though, the path should be more balanced so that in future years, a coach like Mickey Dean stays at James Madison to compete for a WCWS title.

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