BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Ole Miss softball team added another chapter to its history-making season Sunday when it received its first bid to the NCAA tournament as one of 11 teams from the Southeastern Conference.
Ole Miss (39-20), which set a program record for wins in a season and tied the program mark for wins in the SEC, will play Tulsa at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Norman (Okla.) Regional, which will be hosted by No. 3 national seed Oklahoma.
The winners of the 16 regionals, which will feature a double-elimination format, will advance to the super regionals.
Two-time reigning national champion Florida (53-5) earned the No. 1 overall seed. SEC tournament champion Auburn (49-9) earned a No. 4 national seed, while Alabama (46-12) earned the No. 6 national seed. The top eight seeds will have a chance to play host to the super regionals if they win their regional.
Kentucky (43-12) is the No. 9 seed. LSU (45-15) is the No. 10 seed, and Tennessee (41-14) earned the No. 13 seed. Missouri (39-14) earned the No. 15 seed, while Georgia (40-17) is the No. 16 seed.
South Carolina (36-21) will compete in the Tallahassee Regional for the third-consecutive year, while Texas A&M earned its 27th NCAA appearance and will play in the Lafayette (La.) Regional.
Ole Miss finished with nine wins against top-50 Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) teams, including three in the final three weeks of the season.
Alabama qualified for its 18th-straight NCAA tournament. It will play host to Samford at 4 p.m. Friday at Rhoads Stadium.
Alabama has played in the NCAA tournament every season since 1999, and has an 81-39 (.675) all-time record. Alabama has won every regional round since 2005, the longest active streak in Division-I softball. This marks the 14th season Alabama has earned a national seed, including a streak of 12 straight.
Samford, led by former Tide player Mandy Burford, is making its first NCAA tournament appearance after earning the Southern Conference’s automatic bid.
This is the fourth-consecutive year the SEC will send a league-record 11 teams to the NCAA tournament.
Play in the super regionals will go from May 26-29. The Women’s College World Series will be June 2-8 at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium – OGE Energy Field in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Since 1997, the SEC has had eight teams advance to the Women’s College World Series: Alabama (2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015), Auburn (2015), Florida (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015), Georgia (2009, 2010), Kentucky (2014), LSU (2001, 2004, 2012, 2015), South Carolina (2007), and Tennessee (2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015).
Alabama claimed the first national championship in SEC history when it downed Oklahoma, 5-4, on June 7, 2012. Florida defeated Alabama in the best-of-three series in 2014 and then became the third program in NCAA softball history to win back-to-back national titles after defeating Michigan in the 2015 WCWS Championship Series.
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