NCAA Division I Softball Tournament

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NCAA Division I Softball Tournament
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2021 NCAA Division I Softball Tournament
SportCollege softball
Founded1982
No. of teams64
Most recent
champion(s)
Oklahoma (5)
Most titlesUCLA (12)
TV partner(s)ESPN
ESPN2
Official websiteNCAA.com

The NCAA Division I Softball Tournament is held annually in May/June and features 64 college softball teams in the United States, culminating in the Women's College World Series (WCWS), which is played in Oklahoma City.

Tournament play and team selection[]

The tournament is unique in that it features four tiers of competition and a loss does not necessarily eliminate a team from contention. In fact, throughout the entire tournament a team can lose a total of four games and still be crowned champions.

A total of 64 teams compete in the tournament. 32 teams gain automatic entry into the tournament while the other 32 are selected by the Division I Softball committee. From this field of 64, 16 teams will be given "national seeds" and placed at one of the assigned regional sites, often the home field of each national seed.[1]

The first round of the tournament, called "regionals", consists of 16 locations that include four teams competing in a double elimination bracket. The winner of each regional moves on to the second round, the "super regionals."

For the super regionals, the regional containing overall #1 seed will be matched up with the regional containing the overall #16 seed, the #2 seed regional will be matched up with the #15 seed regional, and so on. The higher seed of the two teams usually hosts the best-of-three series, with the winner moving on to the Women's College World Series.

The final eight teams meet at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City in the Women's College World Series. The WCWS is further divided into two sections. The first part resembles the regional round, as teams are broken in two groups of four to play in a double-elimination bracket. The winners of each bracket then meet in a championship series similar to the super regional tier in that it is a best-of-three series. The winner of the WCWS is crowned national champion.

Team titles[]

NCAA Division I Softball Tournament is located in the United States
឴឴឵UCLA
឴឴឵UCLA
Arizona
Arizona
Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Arizona State
Arizona State
Florida
Florida
Texas A&M
Texas
A&M
Alabama
Alabama
Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Fullerton
California
California
Florida State
Florida
State
Fresno State
Fresno
State
Michigan
Michigan
Washington
Washington
class=notpageimage|
Schools that have won the NCAA Championship
ButtonYellow.svg 12, ButtonBlue.svg 8, ButtonRed.svg 5, ButtonGray.svg 2, ButtonWhite.svg 1
Team # Years
UCLA 12 1982 , 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2019
Arizona 8 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2006, 2007
Oklahoma 5 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021
Arizona State 2 2008, 2011
Florida 2014, 2015
Texas A&M 1983, 1987
Alabama 1 2012
Cal State Fullerton 1986
California 2002
Florida State 2018
Fresno State 1998
Michigan 2005
Washington 2009

See also[]

  • AIAW Intercollegiate Women's Softball Champions

References[]

  1. ^ "Road to the Championship | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. Retrieved 2020-03-31.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""