May 8, 2025; Athens, GA, USA; Texas teammates meet on the mound during a game against Ole Miss at Jack Turner Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mady Mertens-Imagn Images Mady Mertens-Imagn Images

Texas Longhorns Remain Steady National Softball Rankings

Originally posted on Texas Longhorns on SI
By Ylver Deleon-Rios | Last updated May 13, 2025 7:13 PM ET

After finding out their place as the No. 6 overall seed and hosts of a regional and potential superregional in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, the Texas Longhorns remain ranked inside the top five in a pair of rankings lists.

The Longhorns remain highly ranked in this week's polls, post-conference tournament week. They are ranked No. 3 in NFCA's top-25 coaches poll and No. 4 in ESPN.com/ USA Softball top-25 poll.

In a season where Texas was dominant at times and was ranked unanimously No. 1 for consecutive weeks, it ended the 2025 regular season in a less-than-stellar manner, dropping two out of their four final conference series and flaming out in the SEC tournament semifinal.

Within the last week, Texas pushed through a comeback attempt from the Ole Miss Rebels to get into the SEC tournament semifinals, winning 7-6 in walk-off fashion in the quarterfinals. However, they were soundly beaten by rivals the Texas A&M Aggies 14-2. While an up-and-down week, Texas did enough to move up from No. 5 to No. 4 in USA Softball's list and remained at No. 3 in NFCA's poll.

When Texas moved over into the SEC over the summer, many of the big headlines catered towards football. But the addition of Texas and softball powerhouse the Oklahoma Sooners, SEC softball got a whole lot better.

The Longhorns had six out of their eight conference series against teams ranked in the top-25, with four of those teams sitting inside the top-10. And after the selection show over the weekend, the power of SEC softball dominated the tournament field, with 14 out of the 15 SEC schools with softball programs selected into the tournament, becoming the conference with the most teams selected in NCAA Tournament history.

No matter where the Longhorns finished in the rankings following their first season in the SEC, all of its attention turns to the NCAA Tournament and the goal of returning to the Women's College World Series Finals, after being swept by the Sooners a year ago.

A return to early-season form will be looked for from head coach Mike White's squad, with batters coming back alive and the pitching rotation ironed out.

Texas begins NCAA Tournament play hosting the Austin regional, playing the Eastern Illinois Panthers in their first game on May 16 at 3:30.

This article first appeared on Texas Longhorns on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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