NCAA Softball Tournament: Bracket Setup for Round of 64

With the respective conference championships wrapping up on Saturday, Selection Sunday will fill out the remaining half of the regional brackets.

The only exception this year to the rule is that neither Texas nor Oklahoma won the SEC championship. A rainy Saturday in Georgia washed out the championship game, leaving the committee with a tough task to decide who gets the coveted one-seed.

A hiccup like not being able to play the conference championship will bear no effect on the Sooners, who are in search of their fifth straight National Championship game.

Regional Format

The regional bracket will start with 64 teams drawn into 16 regional groups of four nationwide. Each respective regional one-seed will serve as the host for their regional.

After 32 teams automatically punched their bid in the conference championships, Selection Sunday fills out the remaining slots with at-large bids for teams who were unsuccessful in capturing conference championship glory.

Regional tournaments are quick, double-elimination brackets, with each bracket lasting a minimum of three games and a maximum of four.

Making the regional final is a task as easy as winning two games without losing two games. Double elimination sets up the one and four seeds alongside the two and four seeds competing in round one. The respective victors will play as well as the losers.

The losers need to stretch a four-game winning streak to capture the regional, with the two winners playing for a chance at the finals.

Super Regional Format

The only part of the tournament that does not act as a tournament is the Super Regionals. A three game series ensues following the regionals for the 16 regional champions.

With the regions being numbered in a pre-determined order, 1-16, that sets up the super regional matchups. The winner of the 1st regional plays the 16th regional winner, and the 2nd battles the 15th, and so forth.

Only teams that won their regional and were a top-16 national seed qualify to host a super-regional series.

Women's College World Series Format

The World Series ends up being a medley of the two previous rounds combined into one big tournament.

Another double-elimination tournament, this time with eight teams, starts to either fill athletes' biggest dreams or see them shattered on the dirt.

A double-elimination tournament is set up in the same way as the regional; the winners and losers play for a chance at the finals, except the double-elimination is purely to decide the championship game. Once there, double-elimination is reset and a traditional three-game set begins between what should be--the best two powerhouses in the nation.

The Hokies are not guaranteed a spot in the regionals after dropping a heartbreaking loss at the hands of the eventual ACC champions, the Clemson Tigers.

Selection Sunday is available on ESPN2 and ESPN+, going live at 7 p.m. on the 11th, filling out the 64 teams fighting to bring home national hardware.

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