It's really been the past 5 years I think that softball has started showing more parity. Some teams seeded nationally 8-16 would make the WCWS, but it was really in the last 5 years, starting with JMU in 2021, that you started to get 1-2 (or more) unseeded teams in OKC.
In the umbrella of women's bracket sports, softball is least chalky. But its way chalkier than NCAA baseball. Baseball has 5 unseeded champions since 2008
I actually like that a lot. The ACC wants to help them with the scheduling agreement, then they should functionally be forced to lose their spot to ND if ND finishes ranked higher than their champ.
Yep, in VB, you might get an unseeded team (or a team seeded 5-8) in the regional semifinals. Wouldn't bet too much on them going any further. Same with WBB - usually the superior talent and coaching beats back any potential upsets of teams outside the top 16 by the Sweet 16. The most notable I can think of in the last 5-ish years was 10 seed Creighton making the Elite 8 in 2022 and 9 seed Miami making the Elite 8 in 2023.
In VB, an 11 seed won it all (2004) and an unseeded team made the finals (BYU) in 2014. Been a long time.
I think softball might be the least chalky - there's also an unseeded team or two (or three sometimes) in the WCWS, and one made it all the way to the finals in 2022 (holla).
One of the at-large is automatically ND's*, so more like SEC champ + 6 potential at-large spots for Texas.
*as the committee has clearly made it plain as day this year, they are in at 10-2 and their schedule sets them up for 10-2 or better for the rest of forever.
All times eastern and on ESPN+
Thursday, Dec. 4
3 p.m. | No. 5 Colorado vs. American
4:30 p.m. | No. 6 Baylor vs. Arkansas State
4:30 p.m. | No. 8 UCLA vs. Georgia Tech
5 p.m. | No. 5 Miami (Florida) vs. Tulsa
5:30 p.m. | No. 4 Indiana vs. Toledo
5:30 p.m. | No. 6 UNI vs. Utah
5:30 p.m. | No. 6 UTEP vs. North Carolina
6:30 p.m. | No. 7 Tennessee vs. Utah State
7 p.m. | No. 1 Kentucky vs. Wofford
7 p.m. | No. 3 Purdue vs. Wright State
7:30 p.m. | No. 4 Kansas vs. High Point
8 p.m. | No. 5 BYU vs. Cal Poly
8 p.m. | No. 3 Creighton vs. Northern Colorado
8 p.m. | No. 3 Wisconsin vs. Eastern Illinois
9 p.m. | No. 2 Arizona State vs. Coppin State
10:30 p.m. | No. 4 Southern California vs. Princeton