Softball America Bracketology: 2026 Selection Sunday

It’s Selection Sunday and the Field of 64 will be unveiled at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Before the real thing comes out, we do one last college softball bracketology with the Top 16 seeds that will host regionals and the at-large bubble.

How the College Softball Bracket is formed

The Field of 64 is built upon 31 automatic bids from each conference and 33 at-large bids. The at-large bids are rooted in RPI, wins against the different quadrants of the RPI, and strength of schedule, while factoring in other data sets such as KPI and DSR.

As a reminder, the bracket will look different than years past. After multiple years of discussion, NCAA softball will follow the footsteps of Women’s Volleyball & Women’s Soccer, seeding 32 teams. This does not change the 16 national seeds, but should help reward the top seeds with ‘easier’ matchups.

The Selection Committee will split the bracket into quadrants, seeding the top eight teams in each quadrant, similar to volleyball and soccer. The Top 16 seeds will be seeded as 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, but will still host regionals. The 17-32 seeds, or the two seeds in each region, will be seeded as 5s, 6s, 7s, and 8s, because seeding straight 1-32 would create inter-conference matchups, which are avoided. The committee won’t tell us exactly how 17-32 is ordered.

The Buckets

• National Seeds 1,2,3,4 will be the 1 seeds in each quadrant and match up with National Seeds 29, 30, 31, 32 seeds, which will be the 8 seeds in each quadrant and the two seeds in those respective regional
• National Seeds 5, 6, 7, 8 – 2 seeds in quadrant matched with National Seeds 25, 26, 27, 28 – 7 seeds in quadrant
• National Seeds 9, 10, 11, 12 – 3 seeds in quadrant matched with National Seeds 21, 22, 23, 24 – 6 seeds in quadrant
• National Seeds 13, 14, 15, 16 – 4 seeds in quadrant matched with National Seeds 17, 18, 19, 20 – 5 seeds in quadrant

College Softball Bracketology Projections

Editor’s note: * = Automatic Bid

Tuscaloosa Regional – (No. 1 National Seed Alabama)

(1 Seed Regional) 1 Alabama
(2 Seed Regional) 8 Wisconsin
(3 Seed Regional) Georgia Tech
(4 Seed Regional) Eastern Illinois*

Baton Rouge Regional – (No. 16 LSU)

4 LSU
5 Virginia Tech
South Alabama*
Princeton*

Tallahassee Regional – (No. 8 Florida State)

2 Florida State*
7 Washington
Stetson*
Florida A&M*

Athens Regional – (No. 9 Georgia)

3 Georgia
6 Clemson
Samford/UNC Greensboro*
USC Upstate*

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Fayetteville Regional – (No. 4 Arkansas)

1 Arkansas
8 Kansas
Grand Canyon*
South Dakota*

Stillwater Regional – (No. 13 Oklahoma State)

4 Oklahoma State
5 Mississippi State
Belmont*
Fordham*

Lincoln Regional – (No. 5 Nebraska)

2 Nebraska*
7 South Carolina
Boston U.*
Howard*

Durham Regional – (No. 12 Duke)

3 Duke
6 UCF
Marshall
Charleston*

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Austin Regional – (No. 2 Texas)

1 Texas*
8 Indiana
McNeese*
Binghamton*

College Station Regional – (No. 15 Texas A&M)

4 Texas A&M
5 Stanford
Southeastern Louisiana
UConn*

Gainesville Regional – (No. 7 Florida)

2 Florida
7 Virginia
USF*
Marist*

Los Angeles Regional – (No. 10 UCLA)

3 UCLA
6 Arizona
Cal State Fullerton*
Cal Baptist*

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Norman Regional – (No. 3 Oklahoma)

1 Oklahoma
8 Texas State
Baylor
Wagner*

Eugene Regional – (No. 14 Oregon)

4 Oregon
5 Arizona State*
Saint Mary’s*
Idaho State*

Knoxville Regional – (No. 6 Tennessee)

2 Tennessee
7 Louisville
Jax State*
NKU*

Lubbock Regional – (No. 11 Texas Tech)

3 Texas Tech
6 Ole Miss
Michigan
Akron*

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College Softball Bracketology Breakdown

Top 16 Seeds

1. Alabama (SEC)
2. Texas (SEC)
3. Oklahoma (SEC)
4. Arkansas (SEC)
5. Nebraska (Big Ten)
6. Tennessee (SEC)
7. Florida (SEC)
8. Florida State (ACC)
9. Georgia (SEC)
10. UCLA (Big Ten)
11. Texas Tech (Big 12)
12. Duke (ACC)
13. Oklahoma State (Big 12)
14. Oregon (Big Ten)
15. Texas A&M (SEC)
16. LSU (SEC)

Alabama maintains the No. 1 spot in this projection, as the Tide have held a No. 2 RPI and the most Top-10 RPI wins (8). Texas, which beat Alabama in the SEC Tournament title game, has a legitimate case for the top seed as well, with the most Quad One wins (20) and five against Top-10 RPI teams.

Based on resumes, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Florida feel like locks to host Super Regionals, barring the committee valuing a different metric.

As for the final Top Eight spot, it feels as if the committee could pick any of Florida State, UCLA, Texas Tech, Duke, or Georgia. The Noles don’t have the best metrics that they typically use – seven Quad One wins and two Top-10 RPI wins – but they have a clean resume without a bad loss, and they’ve only lost four times since late February. There’s a better chance that the Selection Committee saw Florida State’s run-rule win over Stanford than its late-night West Coast losses.

UCLA, Texas Tech, Duke, and Georgia all have something that stands out about them, but none of those teams made a clear statement in their conference tournaments the way Florida State did, winning the ACC and picking up two Quad One wins along the way. While the metrics don’t pick Florida State, the case could be made for anyone, so why not the team that’s been the best on paper.

National Seeds 17-32 – 5-8 Seed Buckets

• Virginia Tech (5)
• Stanford (5)
• Mississippi State (5)
• Arizona State (5)
• Arizona (6)
• Ole Miss (6)
• UCF (6)
• Clemson (6)
• South Carolina (7)
• Virginia (7)
• Washington (7)
• Louisville (7)
• Indiana (8)
• Kansas (8)
• Texas State (8)
• Wisconsin (8)

Last Four In

61. Baylor
62. Marshall
63. Southeastern Louisiana
64. Georgia Tech

First Four Out

65. North Carolina
66. Northwestern
67. Purdue
68. ULM

Baylor feels like a near lock. Marshall will be the ultimate litmus test. The Herd has a hollow resume with only four Top-50 RPI wins. However, they have a Top-30 RPI, and in the past four seasons, the best RPI to be left out as an at-large was 40 when Texas Tech missed the tournament in 2024.

It feels as if there are two spots between Southeastern Louisiana, Georgia Tech and North Carolina. The Tar Heels are left out in this projection. Southeastern Louisiana has the best RPI of the three teams, six wins against the Top-50 RPI teams and a winning record against the Top-100. The Lions do have five Quad Four losses, the most of any team in the group.

Georgia Tech has one more Quad One win than North Carolina, six wins compared to three against Top-RPI teams and a better winning percentage in those games. The Yellow Jackets also have better overall and non-conference strength-of-schedule metrics than the Tar Heels. It wouldn’t be a surprise if any of those three teams is left out.

A Selection Committee including a Northwestern, Purdue, ULM, or even a Wichita State or Nevada would be pretty shocking.

Bids by conference

SEC – 12
ACC – 8
Big Ten – 7
Big 12 – 7
Sun Belt – 3
Southland – 2
All other conferences – 1