2025 NCAA Softball Tournament Hosting Predictions

Projecting the top-16 seeds in the NCAA softball tournament with less than two weeks left. Who will get to host regionals?

Detail of the field against Southeastern at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL on Sunday, May 19, 2024. / Alabama Athletics

Selection Sunday is less than two weeks away for the 2025 college softball season where the 64 teams with a shot at a Women's College World Series will be announced on May 11 at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN

There are 31 automatic bids for conference tournament champions and 33 at-large teams across the 16 regionals. The top-16 seeds will get to host regionals with the top-eight seeds also able to host super regionals if advancing to that round.

The SEC is expected to have 14 of its 15 softball programs in the 64-team field, including multiple regional hosts.

There are a variety of factors the selection committee looks at beyond just a team's record including RPI, strength of schedule, non-conference strength of schedule, quality wins (against top-10, top-25 and top-50 RPI teams) and bad losses (against teams below 100 in the RPI.)

Quad 1 games include home games against 1-25 in the RPI, neutral site games vs. 1-40 and road games against teams ranked 1-60 in RPI. Ranking in national polls is not a factor used in NCAA seeding (see No. 1 Minnesota in 2017 not hosting a regional), but I am including it as a reference point to show how the voters and coaches view each team.

Sometimes a team can have a really good overall record but not great metric and vice versa. This is still very flexible and ever-changing with the remaining games over the next 1.5 weeks. All that to say, here are BamaCentral's projections for the top-16 seeds and regional hosts for the 2025 NCAA Tournament heading into the final week of the regular season.

1. Texas A&M (41-8, 14-6 SEC)

RPI: 1
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 4
SOS: 8
Non-con SOS: 6
Quad 1 record: 15-7

2. Oklahoma (42-5, 16-5 SEC)

RPI: 3
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 1
SOS: 25
Non-con SOS: 184
Quad 1 record: 15-4

3. Florida (41-12, 12-9 SEC)

RPI: 2
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 7
SOS: 1
Non-con SOS: 10
Quad 1 record: 13-11

4. Tennessee (39-11, 14-7 SEC)

RPI: 10
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 2
SOS: 4
Non-con SOS: 26
Quad 1 record: 15-11

5. UCLA (45-7, 15-3 Big Ten)

RPI: 4
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 8
SOS: 16
Non-con SOS: 38
Quad 1 record: 8-5

6. Texas (42-9, 13-8 SEC)

RPI: 8
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 5
SOS: 17
Non-con SOS: 113
Quad 1 record: 15-9

7. Florida State (42-7, 16-2 ACC)

RPI: 7
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 9
SOS: 21
Non-con SOS: 8
Quad 1 record: 7-5

8. Arkansas (36-10, 12-9 SEC)

RPI: 6
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 6
SOS: 5
Non-con SOS: 76
Quad 1 record: 9-10

9. South Carolina (37-13, 11-10 SEC)

RPI: 9
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 12
SOS: 6
Non-con SOS: 17
Quad 1 record: 14-12

10. LSU (39-11, 11-10 SEC)

RPI: 5
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 10
SOS: 9
Non-con SOS: 33
Quad 1 record: 11-10

11. Oregon (44-5, 17-2 Big Ten)

RPI: 13
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 3
SOS: 59
Non-con SOS: 157
Quad 1 record: 5-1

12. Arizona (40-10, 14-7 Big 12)

RPI: 11
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 13
SOS: 31
Non-con SOS: 21
Quad 1 record: 7-4

13. Alabama (35-18, 11-10 SEC)

RPI: 15
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 14
SOS: 7
Non-con SOS: 24
Quad 1 record: 10-15

14. Duke (37-15, 16-8 ACC)

RPI: 12
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 20
SOS: 10
Non-con SOS: 1
Quad 1 record: 6-9

15. Clemson (41-12, 19-5 ACC)

RPI: 14
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 16
SOS: 27
Non-con SOS: 50
Quad 1 record: 7-6

16. Texas Tech (40-11, 18-3 Big 12)

RPI: 20
USA Softball Top-25 ranking: 11
SOS: 50
Non-con SOS: 47
Quad 1 record: 7-8

Read more on BamaCentral:

feed