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Oklahoma players shown on the field before the start of the game against Arkansas at Jack Turner Softball Stadium. Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

OU Softball: NCAA Selection Committee Chair Explains Why Oklahoma Was Tabbed as Tournament's No. 2 Seed

Originally posted on Oklahoma Sooners on SI
By Ryan Chapman | Last updated May 11, 2025 8:47 PM ET

For the second straight year, Oklahoma is headed to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 2-overall seed.

Last year, the Sooners dropped the regular season series to Texas before avenging that loss to win the Big 12 Tournament.

Come Selection Sunday, the committee used the Longhorns’ non-conference schedule to break the tie.

It didn’t matter much a year ago, as Oklahoma blitzed Texas in the Championship Series at the Women’s College World Series to capture the program’s fourth-straight national title.

The non-conference schedule was again decisive this year.

Texas A&M was tabbed as the top-overall seed. The Sooners and the Aggies didn’t meet in the regular season, but they battled through each side to meet in the SEC Tournament Championship, but the title game was called for weather and the teams were named co-champions.

The lack of a matchup between OU and Texas A&M threw things back over to the resumes.

“Two quality opponents in Texas A&M and Oklahoma,” NCAA Softball Committee Chair and UT Martin Athletic Director Kurt McGuffin told ESPN2 on Sunday. “I think what set apart Texas A&M is they have 19 top 25 wins which is number one in the country in wins in the top 25. They also had two quality non-conference wins versus Florida State and Texas Tech, and I think those were the two pieces that set them to the number one seed.”

The bracket has been revealed!

NCAA Softball Committee Chair, Kurt McGuffin, discusses the committee's decisions.#RoadToWCWS x ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/VGm7itB4Xk
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 11, 2025

Later, McGuffin noted Oklahoma had 18 top 25 wins in a Zoom press conference.

Typically, Patty Gasso challenges her team with a rigorous non-conference slate.

OU didn’t take part in any of the major multi-team events this year like the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, something that was by design as Gasso got a host of new faces acclimated to life in Norman.

“You might look at our schedule and say they played a weak schedule. That’s fine,” Gasso said in March as Oklahoma prepared to enter SEC play. “I’ve got new players that need to learn and adjust. Now we need to be ready. There is no other answer. You have to be ready to go. It’s going to be tough. It’s not like you can go somewhere and can rest your starters. It’s not going to be like that.”

Of Oklahoma’s non-conference matchups, only San Diego State and UCF made the NCAA Tournament field.

Once the Sooners entered SEC play, their quality was on full display.

OU went 17-7 in its regular season conference schedule, which included series against the tournament’s 3-seed (Florida), 4-seed (Arkansas), 6-seed (Texas), 7-seed (Tennessee) and 8-seed (South Carolina).

Gasso’s team also picked up an additional win against Arkansas in the SEC Tournament, as well as a victory over 10-seeded LSU, who the Sooners didn’t meet in regular season.

Still, had the Sooners and Aggies been able to meet on Saturday at the SEC Tournament, the committee may have circled back to re-evaluate the top two seeds.

“I think any championship game, we always go back,” McGuffin said. “I don’t think we ever said, ‘Okay, whoever wins this is going to be the one or the two,’ because we still look at resumes… But it does become a head-to-head thing. And then also, if Oklahoma were to win another top 25 game, because of the criteria.

“… I would say (they were) 1A/1B, because they’re both fantastic teams. The resume shows that… It was really, really close.”

This article first appeared on Oklahoma Sooners on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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