Nebraska Softball to Host Lincoln Regional as No. 4 Overall Seed in NCAA Tournament

The 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed on Sunday evening and the Nebraska Cornhuskers earned the No. 4 overall seed.

The Lincoln Regional will welcome the Louisville Cardinals, Grand Canyon Lopes, and South Dakota Coyotes to town starting Friday, May 15.

Lincoln Regional
📅 May 15-17

(1) @HuskerSoftball @SDCoyotesSB @GCU_Softball
(8) @LouisvilleSB #RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/qrI7fZcKZT
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 10, 2026

Louisville and Grand Canyon will open the weekend at 3 p.m. on Friday, May 15.

Nebraska will open tournament play against South Dakota at 5:30 p.m. CDT on Friday. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

The 2026 Lincoln Regional marks the first time since 2013 that Nebraska has hosted and the fifth time in venue history that Bowlin Stadium has hosted a regional.

Tickets for the 2026 Lincoln Regional will go on sale to the public tomorrow, May 11, at 3 p.m. CDT and will be available here. There will be a tiered on-sale for Nebraska Athletics donors before the public on-sale.

"Just excited to know that we get to be home this weekend and potentially next week if we take care of business," senior Jordy Frahm said at Sunday's Selection Show Watch Party at Rhonda Revelle Field at Bowlin Stadium. "I've never been to a postseason game at Bowlin so it will be my first time."

For the first time, the top 32 teams were seeded nationally in pods of four. Per the
established bracketing principles, the top 16 seeds were provided the opportunity to host.
Additionally, team pairings were determined within the pods (ones paired with eights, twos
paired with sevens, threes paired with sixes, and fours paired with fives) and assigned
geographically within their pods, with the exception that teams from the same conference
are not paired at the same Regional.

Nebraska, along with Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma are the top four seeds in the tournament. The Huskers earned the Big Ten automatic bid with their 11th conference tournament title in school history. This year marks the ninth time in program history that they have won the conference regular season and tournament titles in the same season.

Louisville Cardinals

Louisville (44-12, 18-6 ACC) finished the regular season tied for third in the ACC and made it to the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship.

This marks Louisville's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2023.

The Cards are the No. 8 seed in the Lincoln Regional, and the game against Grand Canyon will mark the first-ever meeting between the teams.

Grand Canyon Lopes

At 52-8, the Grand Canyon Lopes are tied for the most wins in the country with Texas Tech.

Coming off a Mountain West regular-season and conference tournament title, GCU is playing in its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament.

South Dakota Coyotes

The South Dakota Coyotes will be making their NCAA Tournament debut after beating Omaha in the Summit League tournament twice.

South Dakota's roster features seven Nebraska natives and Brooke Carey, the younger sister of Husker baseball's Dylan Carey.

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