TEMPE – Following one of the most successful seasons in recent history, Arizona State Athletic Director Graham Rossini and Sun Devil Softball Head Coach Megan Bartlett have agreed to a contract extension through the 2031 season to ensure the continued growth and wayward trajectory following the 2026 season.
“Megan has put her mark on Sun Devil Softball through the program she has built, the talent she has developed and the championship culture she has created,” said Sun Devil Athletics Director Graham Rossini. “She has established an environment where softball student-athletes learn from her experience competing at a high level as both a player and a coach, and benefit from the outstanding assistant coaches and support staff she has assembled. That work culminated in last season’s Big 12 title and a return to the national stage. We are excited to continue building together.”
“My family and I are thrilled to be Sun Devils for the foreseeable future as is my incredibly dedicated staff and their families,” Bartlett said. “Returning Sun Devil Softball to national prominence was a labor of love and I could not be more thankful for the people who supported us on this journey.
“I want to offer our sincerest thanks to Graham Rossini and Marcus Williams as well as President Crow. Arizona State is a special place and it’s because of people like them. I could not be more grateful to be a Sun Devil.”
Over the course of her four seasons in Tempe, Bartlett has amassed a 122-96 (.559) all-time record and is the program’s fifth all-time winningest head coach. The results came after Bartlett and her staff had to rebuild the foundation of the program following the 2022 season. She also helped the program transition from the Pac-10/12 Conference to the Big 12 Conference on Aug. 2, 2024, marking the first conference change for the Sun Devils’ Softball program since 1986.
The 2026 campaign saw Bartlett’s Sun Devils capture the Big 12 Softball Tournament Championship, marking the fourth conference title in program history and the first since 2022. She became one of just three head coaches in the program’s 60-year history to win at least one conference championship. By capturing the conference tournament championship, Arizona State, the sixth-seeded team, became the first team in league history to beat the top three-seeded teams – Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Arizona – en route to winning the tournament. And ASU did so in less than 42 hours.
Arizona State used momentum from the conference championship and carried it into the postseason, where the Sun Devils swept through the NCAA College Station-Bryan Regional and knocked off then-No. 17/16 and No. 15 overall seed Texas A&M, 4-3 and 9-1, in back-to-back days. The eight-run victory to close out the regional and clinch the program’s 11th NCAA Super Regional berth was sealed by a walk-off grand slam by Brooklyn Ulrich in the bottom of the fifth.
The Sun Devils were on the verge of their 13th all-time Women’s College World Series appearance a week later after All-American Kenzie Brown led Arizona State to a 4-1 win over then-No. 6/3 and No. 2 overall seed Texas in Game 1 of the NCAA Austin Super Regional. ASU was four outs from closing out the Super Regional in two games, before a two-out, two-run home run turned the momentum of the series that the Longhorns eventual won en route to winning the national championship.
By the end of the 2026 season, the Sun Devils had won 45 games, the most by an Arizona State squad since the 2018 team won 48.
Under Bartlett’s leadership, Arizona State has beaten 21 ranked opponents over the last four seasons, including beating Arizona four times. One of the wins over the Wildcats earned Bartlett her 100th all-time win at the helm of the Sun Devils on March 20, 2026, when ASU beat UA, 16-5, in five innings. The 16 runs scored against the then-No. 13/11 Wildcats marked the most by a Sun Devil team in a game against UA since April 6, 1973.
While in Tempe, Bartlett and her staff have coached 12 Pac-10/12 or Big 12 All-Conference selections, 10 NFCA All-Region honorees and two All-Americans. In the classroom, Arizona State has had 62 NFCA Scholar-Athlete selections, 18 CSC Academic All-District members and one Academic All-American.
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