The Women’s College Softball regular season came to a close this weekend which means it’s time for the announcement of the NCAA tournament brackets. Like the Men’s Basketball tournament we are more familiar with, there are 64 teams in the Women’s College World Series Tournament field.
But instead of a single elimination tournament the Women’s College World Series starts with each team in a group of four teams called a regional. Those four teams will have a miniature double elimination tournament. The 16 remaining remaining teams in the Women’s College World Series will be paired off into what is called Super Regionals and will play a best of three series. Finally the Women’s College World Series will see the final eight teams face each other in a double elimination tournament.
The SEC leads the field with eight teams in the Women’s College World Series tournament bracket, beating out the usual top conference, the Pac-10, by one team.
Among the eight SEC teams in the field are the 62 – 2 Florida Gators who received the number one seed in the tournament. The Florida Gators will play Georgia Tech in the first round and the rest of their regional includes Central Florida and South Florida. The winner of Florida’s regional will have to face San Diego State, California, Sacramento State or Fresno State in the Super Regionals.
The next portion of the Women’s College World Series tournament bracket features the number nine seed LSU taking on Mississippi Valley State, East Carolina and Louisiana Lafayette while number eight seed Houston takes on Washington, Texas and Delaware State.
In College Station, Texas the home team Texas A&M; Aggies will host Stephen F. Austin, Louisiana Tech and Auburn while Massachusetts will host Princeton, Lehigh and the number 12 seed Stanford.
The third Women’s College World Series region hosted by an SEC team is in Knoxville where the Lady Volunteers will host Winthrop, Louisville and Virginia Tech. The winner of that region will either face the number four seed Michigan, Notre Dame, Kent State or Wright State for a spot in the Women’s College World Series.
In Tuscaloosa the third seed Alabama will host Chattanooga, Jacksonville State and Florida State while Iowa hosts Missouri, Creighton and number 14 seed Long Beach State in Iowa City.
The number six seed Arizona State will stay in home in Tempe and host Mississippi State, Hawaii and Stony Brook with the winner getting a shot at number 11 seed Northwestern, Western Illinois, Drake or Depaul.
Meanwhile, their rivals and two time defending National Champions, the Arizona Wildcats will go on the road to play Canisius, Long Island and Hofstra in New York. The winner of that regional will get number 10 seed Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tulsa or Oregon in the Super Regionals.
Finally the number two seed UCLA will be at home defending their turf against Nevada, Purdue and Cal State Fullerton while number 15 seed Georgia, Campbell, Brigham Young or North Carolina awaits in the Super Regionals.
The regionals of the Womens’ College World Series will begin on May 15th and will play through May 18th. The Super Regionals of the Women’s College World Series will be played May 23rd and 24th. Finall the final eight of the Women’s College World Series will begin playing on May 29th.
NCAA, D-I Softball Championship Field Set, NCAA.com
