Seven Big 12 Teams Selected to Play in NCAA Softball Tournament

Led by Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, the Big 12 Conference will have seven teams in the NCAA Softball Tournament, which begins on Friday at sites across the country.

Even though neither the Red Raiders nor the Cowgirls won the Big 12 Tournament, both were named Top 16 national seeds, which means they will host regionals this weekend. While not among the Top 16 national seeds, four Big 12 Tournament teams were seeded in their regionals — Big 12 Tournament champion Arizona State and Arizona were No. 5 seeds, UCF was a No. 6 seed and Kansas was a No. 8 seed.

That left Baylor, which lost in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament to Texas Tech, as the only unseeded Big 12 team in the tournament.

Baylor was the Big 12 team with the lowest RPI rating to make the tournament. The six seeded Big 12 teams were rated above the Bears. The highest-rated Big 12 teams left out of the tournament were Iowa State and Utah. Iowa State failed to make the Big 12 Tournament while Utah made the Big 12 Tournament but lost to Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals.

The 16 winners of each of the regional tournament will advance to super regionals next weekend, which will be hosted by the team with the higher national seed. The Women’s College World Series will be played from May 28-June 5 in Oklahoma City. Texas Tech reached the championship series last year. Oklahoma State has reached the WCWS in five of the last six tournaments.

NCAA Tournament Regionals

(Big 12 Teams in Bold)

Texas Regional

Friday’s Games

1 Texas vs. Wagner, 12:30 p.m. CT

Baylor vs. 8 Wisconsin, 3 p.m. CT

Norman Regional

Friday’s Games

1 Oklahoma vs. Binghamton, 2:30 p.m., CT

Michigan vs. 8 Kansas, 5 p.m. CT

Tallahassee Regional

Friday’s Games

3 Florida State vs. Stetson, 11 a.m. CT

Jacksonville State vs. 6 UCF, 1:30 p.m. CT

Lubbock Regional

Friday’s Games

3 Texas Tech vs. Marist, 3:30 p.m. CT

Boston U vs. 6 Ole Miss, 6 p.m. CT

Durham Regional

Friday’s Games

3 Duke vs. Howard, 11 a.m. CT

Marshall vs. 6 Arizona, 1:30 p.m. CT

Stillwater Regional

Friday’s Games

4 Oklahoma State vs. Eastern Illinois, 3:30 p.m. CT

Princeton vs. 5 Stanford, 1:00 p.m. CT

College Station Regional

Friday’s Games

4 Texas A&M vs. UConn 1:00 p.m. CT

McNeese State vs. 5 Arizona State, 3:30 p.m. CT