Last Four in: Texas, Florida International, Louisville, Oregon State
First Four Out: Boston College, Central Michigan, Michigan State, Cal Poly
Ole Miss capped off an epic run at the SEC Conference Tournament in Knoxville on Saturday by knocking off perennial powers Alabama and LSU to secure their first conference tournament championship in program history. Kaitlin Lee threw four complete games for the Rebels and limited opponents to just three runs. Offensively, they played their speed game to perfection as the Crimson Tide and Tigers did not have an answer on Saturday. The tournament title for Ole Miss should be enough to earn a host bid as wins over Florida, Alabama, and LSU should send their RPI to around the 13-15 range, if not higher. LSU should host as well as Utah let a host opportunity probably slip away as they blew a 12-1 lead against Washington on Sunday when the Huskies beat the Utes 13-12 in eight innings. Minnesota locked down the Big Ten Conference Tournament Championship on Saturday, defeating Illinois 6-5 and Ohio State 6-0 to improve to 54-3 on the season. As far as seeding is concerned, the Golden Gophers will be a top eight national seed and should be about a number four seed nationally give or take a slot or two. Overall, the top 16 seeds should be dominated by the SEC and Pac-12 as those two leagues have been a cut above the rest this season with Florida getting the top seed nationally despite the loss to Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament and having a really bad loss to Maryland on their resume. Florida State, Arizona, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington should fight it out for the number two, three, and four seeds nationally. On the bubble, it is going to be fascinating to see what is done with Florida International. They have a top 50 RPI but failed to win the Conference USA automatic bid as Louisiana Tech crashed the party yesterday with a 1-0 win over the Panthers in the championship game.
ACC: Florida State*, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame
American: Tulsa*
Big East: DePaul*
Big 12: Baylor, Oklahoma*, Oklahoma State, Texas
Big Ten: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota*, Ohio State, Wisconsin
Pac-12: Arizona*, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, Utah, Washington
SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi*, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M
A-10: Fordham*
America East: Albany*
A-Sun: USC Upstate*
Big Sky: Montana*
Big South: Longwood*
Big West: Cal State Fullerton*
CAA: James Madison*
C-USA: Florida International, Louisiana Tech*, Marshall
Horizon: Illinois-Chicago*
Ivy: Princeton*
MAAC: Fairfield*
MAC: Kent State*
MEAC: Florida A&M*
MVC: Southern Illinois*
MWC: San Jose State*
NEC: St. Francis*
OVC: Jacksonville State*
Patriot: Lehigh*
Southern: East Tennessee State*
Southland: McNeese State*
Summit: North Dakota State*
Sun Belt: Louisiana*, Texas State
SWAC: Texas Southern*
WAC: New Mexico State*
WCC: BYU*
See the Softball Projected NCAA Tournament Bracket
