Softball On SI

Criticism Mounts Over Repetitive NCAA Softball Regional Assignments

Softball voices criticize the NCAA for repeatedly sending the same teams to the same regionals, calling it a disservice to the student-athlete experience.
Maren Angus-Coombs|
Boston University is playing in the Norman Regional for the third time in four years.
Boston University is playing in the Norman Regional for the third time in four years. | Matt Woolverton/BU Athletics

It was the surrender cobra seen around the softball world on Sunday evening when the bracket was unveiled live on ESPN2 and the Boston University Terriers saw they were heading back Norman, again.

BU returns to Oklahoma for the third time in four regional trips. Head coach Ashley Waters posted about it on X (formerly Twitter) in response to softball reporter Rhiannon Potkey.

"I understand the travel consideration involved, but sending the same programs to the same NCAA regionals is a disservice to the 'student-athlete experience,' Potkey posted on X. "They want to play in new areas and against new teams."

Boston University isn't the only school that has been treated this way. Ohio State, Auburn, San Diego State, South Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Northwestern have also been treated similarly.

The Buckeyes stand out the most because they have been sent to Knoxville in five of their last six NCAA Regional appearances.

Auburn is headed to the Tallahassee Regional for the fourth time in seven trips. Georgia and Duke have been paired together in the same location for the third time in the past four years, and UK and Northwestern will be in the same location for the third time since 2021.

For USF and SDSU, the story is slightly different. Those two programs have been dealt the short end of the stick simply because of their location.

The Bulls have only appeared in Tallahassee and Gainesville. Since 2014, USF has been at Florida State five times, while only being at Florida twice.

On the other coast, the San Diego State Aztecs are going back to Los Angeles for the fourth time in five trips.

Seeing the pattern led several media personalities to voice their opinions on social media, including Eric Lopez of D1Softball and Brady Vernon of Softball America.

At the end of the day, the committee has a job to do, and while they are doing their best to level out the playing field, some of these patterns are egregious.

Perhaps, there is a better way to set the tournament up in the future, but for now, softball fans will have to deal with more of the same old, same regional matchups.

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Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.

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