Softball, the biggest intramural sport in the spring, is starting up and even though the weather is not cooperating, the games are still going on. The season began last week and consists of 144 teams divided into six divisions, including men’s and women’s open, co-rec and fraternity.

The biggest difference the players will see this year is the scheduling change, as teams now only play two games in the regular season, while everyone makes the playoffs. This is different from years past, as teams used to play three regular season games with only the top two teams from each pool advancing to the playoffs. Rick Palmieri, coordinator for intramural sports, said the switch was done in response to what happened with intramural soccer the semester before.

“We did this first off because of what happened with soccer last semester where the playoffs didn’t end until the spring semester because of so many rainouts and conditions with the field,” Palmieri said. “Switching to this system helps to make the regular season essentially for seeding purposes since everyone makes the playoffs.”

However, with this change, none of the regular season games outside of this past week’s games will be made up, for any reason, including rain. With these format changes, some of the players are unhappy with the new structure, especially the idea that none of the canceled games are going to be rescheduled.

“I don’t like the new format they have installed,” Joseph Riggsbee, a junior in sport management, said. “You aren’t able to get a real feel as to which teams are the best and without rescheduling it’s hard to really see who the best team is because if you lost one game and the other gets rained out you will be a really low seed. They should definitely change it up.”

By not allowing make-ups for canceled games, a chance does arise that some teams may enter the playoffs without playing a single game in the regular season. But Palmieri said this is the lesser of two evils and a risk they are willing to take.

“We do run that risk,” Palmieri said. “It is something that we hope doesn’t happen, but it comes down to what problem is worse, a team not having an opportunity to play in the regular season but still playing in the playoffs, or not having a championship game because we run out of time in the semester.”

Another change this season is that the number of playing fields is shrinking from four to three. This was in response to the close quarters of fields two and three and because of hopes to help limit the amount of time a player from another game has to spend running into a different field as he is chasing down a ball.

“One thing we have done is that we have cut down the number of fields we play on from four to three,” Palmieri said. “The problem was that fields two and three’s infields were right next to each other and a lot of balls would get thrown into the other fields. By cutting down to three fields we can spread out the fields a lot better and space them out a lot more.”

Also for the first time, this year there is an elite league offered for guys who wish to play in more than one league. The league allows players who play in men’s open or fraternity leagues to play in that league but also on the elite team. The cost of the league was $75 per team but comes with added benefits.

“The biggest benefit they will see this year is that they won’t see their season reduced. They will play four games and every game will be made up. Essentially they are paying to have their games guaranteed,” Palmieri said. “We will do everything we have to do to get those games played. Also, only the top-tier officials will umpire the games. The officials who have had experience officiating softball and have been with us for over a year will be the only ones allowed to work the elite games.”

Jeff Gonza, a junior in sport management, said the league will be worth the money strictly for the competition level it will provide.

“It definitely will be [worth it]. The competiveness of it is the thing that makes it so enticing for me,” Gonza said. “It is the best of the best playing against each other. And I want to be the best and playing against this level of competition will let me and my team prove it.”