May Madness

[knightsb]

The championship will be three weekends of competition. Four teams will participate at each of 16 campus sites in a double-elimination tournament.

The committee held selections for the 2015 NCAA Division I Softball Championship May 8-10. The 64-team field was selected from 295 NCAA Division I institutions sponsoring softball. Of the 64 teams, 32 teams received an automatic qualification with the remaining best 32 teams were selected on an at-large basis.

Regionals for the NCAA Division I Softball Championship will be held May 14-17 on 16 campus sites. At each campus site, a four-team, double-elimination tournament will be conducted and the 16 winning teams advance to the Super Regionals.

Super Regionals for the championship will be held May 21-24 on eight campus sites. At each site, two teams play in a best-of-three tournament format. The winners from each site advance to the NCAA women’s College World Series.

The regional hosts have an * next to their name.


Bracket in PDF form here.

 

[corlay]

Yay! My local team (Binghamton) made it in! Had to win 2 back-to-back championship games on Saturday to take the America East conference title and an auto-berth to the WCWS.
Exciting for our local softball fans...

 

[KCPRK]

So cool to see new teams in the hunt!!! Love the growth of softball!

 

[CoogansBluff]

There are 11 SEC teams, and none are in the same regional. Further, there are 7 seeded SEC teams hosting regionals, and none of them can play each other in a Super Regional. That can't be coincidental, can it?

It's possible for all 7 to make the World Series. I'm not saying there is a conspiracy to help the SEC teams, but it seems like they don't want them playing vs. each other in Super Regionals.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Nah, there's no SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) conspiracy! If there were, the SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) would likely have conspired to rig the BCS football championship by placing multiple SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) footbal teams in the top 5 every season, thus all but ensuring an SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) team in the title game. Lots of money in football.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Nah, there's no SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) conspiracy! If there were, the SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) would likely have conspired to rig the BCS football championship by placing multiple SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) footbal teams in the top 5 every season, thus all but ensuring an SEC (channel, co-owned by ESPN) team in the title game. Lots of money in football.

I'm not usually into conspiracy theories, but yeah, there does appear to be some convenient seeding here from some reason. I don't think it helps the SEC's chances of getting to the World Series, since if you put the 7 SEC seeds in 4 groups that would guarantee 3-4 World Series teams and put them at less risk. But it does maximize the number of Super Regionals they potentially could host, which is convenient for the SEC Network. Another reason they might be doing it is to force a conference to prove that it is as good as rated. This way, if the SEC is overrated, more of those 7 will get knocked out. If they are matched vs. each other in Super Regionals, they'd get their 3-4 to advance guaranteed.

re: football - The 4-team playoff is the best thing ever to happen to Ohio State. Now, you'll almost always have 4 conference champions and only 1 SEC team in the final four, even though in 2 SEC teams might deserve to be in the semifinals. Teams like Ohio State and FSU that cake-walk through crappy conferences are going to clean up because they have a bye into the semis. It won't take long for people to claim that the 4-team playoff proves the SEC wasn't as good as people thought. When if fact it is the 4-team playoff - which hurts strong conferences - that is to blame.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

re: football - The 4-team playoff is the best thing ever to happen to Ohio State. Now, you'll almost always have 4 conference champions and only 1 SEC team in the final four, even though in 2 SEC teams might deserve to be in the semifinals. Teams like Ohio State and FSU that cake-walk through crappy conferences are going to clean up because they have a bye into the semis. It won't take long for people to claim that the 4-team playoff proves the SEC wasn't as good as people thought. When if fact it is the 4-team playoff - which hurts strong conferences - that is to blame.

People (pretty much everyone outside of the SEC) have been saying the SEC (Schedule Every Cupcake) is overrated since the BCS started. But if Bama (Roll Tears) is the best they've got, put 3 SEC teams against Urban Meyer and my Bucks every year and we'll run off so many championships it'll be like the second coming of John Wooden lol!

 

[BobInMadison]

I have to root for Central Arkansas, even though they don't have a prayer.

Many years ago, when they were a D-2 school, I taught at UCA for a year as a visiting professor.

Go Sugar Bears!

 

[29dad]

Your 2015 WCWS participants will be:

Florida, UCF, MN, Auburn, Michigan, Alabama, UCLA, and Oregon

Your 2015 national champion will be:

Michigan

 

[JJsqueeze]

Michigan winning is michigas by a michiganah