Over the next two weekends, 64 teams will vie for the 8 slots in Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series. It should be an opportunity to see some great softball.

The committee showed some questionable decision-making (as always) in the selections. It appears the RPI ratings were heavily factored in, but the SEC still got pretty screwed. They had 2 of the top 5 teams the entire season (Tennessee and Alabama), and those teams were seeded 5th and 11th. LSU won the conference title and is on a bit of a roll, and they were sent packing off to Stanford as the 10th seed. Ouch.

Here are a few highlights:

* As always the PAC-10 was elevated. Washington is not a top-10 team but got a 6-seed.
* Arizona is the top seed in the tourney, despite a weaker record than last year.
* Ohio State won both Big Ten titles and saw two conference rivals seeded when they were not.
* VA Tech has one of the best pitchers in the country and could challenge Zona in weekend #2.
* Many of the seeded teams have to play on the road for the first weekend. That sucks.
* Northwestern is looking strong to challenge again this year.
* Tennessee and UCLA could match up in weekend #2 -- one of them will not make the WCWS.
* UCLA has to find a way past talented Hawaii to get to weekend #2.
* SIU is hosting and has an entertaining group (Mizzou and Depaul had great seasons)
* Washington got a bump but plays in Lincoln with Nebraska and Georgia. Tough group.
* LSU plays in Palo Alto with Stanford and Cal State Fresno. Not fun. Then a matchup with ASU.

Potential surprises:
* Hawaii could elminate UCLA -- they have played amazingly well this season.
* VA Tech could challenge Zona in the super-regionals. One pitcher can dominate.
* I think Bama is playing better than UW right now and will make it to OKC.
* LSU is probably a better team than ASU, but they have to make it through the toughest regional first.

Oh puh-leaze! The SEC did not get screwed. They got seeded exactly where they need to be. It will all work out in the end with the most deserving teams making the Elite 8 in Oklahoma City.

I expect the PAC-10 will showcase their talent, since most of the softball talent indeed comes from California and Arizona, where softball is played year-round. That's why the PAC-10 does so well consistently. It's also why any potential championship team has a roster replete with West Coast talent.

I agree that the other conferences need to prove they have caught up, but I don't think many people feel like the PAC-10 is the only softball conference anymore. There are only 2 PAC-10 teams rated in the top 10 by the coaches, but the committee seeded 3 teams in the top 7 seeds.

The SEC has 3 teams in the top 6 and they got a 5 seed, a 10 and an 11. This is really just not representative of the season or the results of all the teams.

The Big Ten did not have the most outstanding year, but both of their top 10 teams were seeded appropriately. The Big 12 got the right seedings for the most part.

I do agree we need to see a WCWS with limited PAC-10 representation. And this could be the year. In addition, I expect a non PAC-10 team to take the title this year to join Oklahoma and Michigan in the champions circle.

Now, now, Charlie! I didn't imply at all or state that the PAC-10 representation needs to be scaled down at all. I merely stated that the best teams will make it to the Elite 8. If those teams are PAC-10 teams, then it will be simply based on merit, not on the equal outcome business that has become the mantra of communists everywhere. Thus, if PAC-10 teams comprise the final 8, so be it. They will have earned it.

The team I expect to go further than they display is Tennessee. They have Monica Abbott, a star pitcher from (where else?) California. This would only prove my point that any team wanting to win a championship in softball recruits heavily from the California/Arizona circles.

Well, the whole point of seeding and slotting these tournaments is to give the best teams fair chances to make it to the WCWS. My point is that the committee did not demonstrate as much objectivity with some teams as it could have, and this diminishes the opportunities for some very good teams.

LSU is clearly one of the best teams in the tournament, but they have two clearly difficult weekends to get to OKC. Then you have a Texas A&M and a Washington team that were both seeded several places higher. Which is going to give them a better chance of playing through. What is the point of having a stellar season if you get stuck in a bad draw.

Alabama lost 7 times all season. 5 of these losses were to top 5 Tennessee and LSU. (They beat both squads as well.) A loss to top 15 Florida and one to a strong Georgia team (made the tournament) rounded out the season. They lost 2 of the 7 games in extra innings. They were undefeated in non-conference play. They are an 11 seed? Please. (BTW -- their star pitchers are from FL and GA which last I checked are nowhere near CA or AZ. In fact, they have only one player on the whole squad from either state.)

UW had 16 losses on the season (over 2x as many). They lost to teams like Cal Poly, Missouri, FL State, Cal State Northridge, and Texas Tech (which finished 8th in the Big 12). Their star pitcher is from Canada (how crazy is that???). Almost the entire roster is from the state of Washington -- not a softball mecca. They were seeded 5 places higher.

ASU had 15 losses on the season (again, over 2x as many). They lost to teams like UTEP (2x), UCSB, Fresno State, and every team in the PAC-10 except Stanford. They were seeded 4 places higher than Bama.

LSU lost 10 games this season. They lost to teams in the tournament (x a bad loss to SE Louisiana). They beat Bama 3x and Tennessee 2x during the season. They slid all the way to 10th, although they are a top 5 team in the polls.

There is little question that the committee played a bit loose with the slottings for the SEC and PAC-10 teams, and that does influence the outcome of the tournament. The higher seeds get home field for most of their games (usually) and they do play different regional competition than the 9-16 seeds. This really penalizes LSU and to a degree Bama.

I'm a huge college softball fan and was just in Fresno last weekend for the WAC tournament. Finally got a chance to see the Hawaii team that everyone had been talking about all year. I don't think UCLA has much to worry about in its regional because Hawaii didn't look great at all. Fresno State beat the Wahine 9-3, and Hawaii's star pitcher who entered the game unbeaten (15-0) didn't even make it thru the third inning.

I got a chance to see Monica Abbott pitch earlier this year in Palm Springs. She is amazing, and HUGE in person. I can't imagine how intimidating it is to see her lunging at you, throwing 70 mph from 43 feet away.

I've been watching Fresno State softball for over a decade and this year's Bulldog team is the best one since the NCAA championship season of 1998. Shockingly, the Bulldogs got a bad seed and were sent to that Palo Alto regional with both 3rd-ranked LSU and 18th-ranked Stanford. When you add in the #23-ranked Bulldogs (using this week's ESPN/USA Softball Top 25 poll), you have the only regional in in the country where 3 of the 4 teams are ranked. Definitely the toughest regional in the nation. Fresno State's Robin Mackin is an incredible pitcher (35 wins, ranking 3rd in the nation behind only Abbott and Virginia Tech's Tincher). Like Washington's ace Lawrie, Mackin is from Canada and plays for its national team. Mackin is only 19 years old.

The softball committee is notoriously bad at selecting, seeding, etc., but this year takes the cake. These women's committees must just have LSU, Stanford and Fresno written on white slips of paper in a big fishbowl, and they just swirl them around and reach in. It was only 2 months ago in the NCAA women's basketball tournament that the #2 and #3 seeds in the Fresno regional were Stanford and LSU.

I like your take on how the committee seeded and slotted. It sounds reasonable given the overall outcomes of last weekend's selection. ESPN, CSTV, and other online sites are all discussing how poorly the tournament was slotted.

LSU and Fresno State both advanced in Palo Alto tonight. ASU and BYU advanced in Provo. The only two regions playing today. The other 14 regions open up tomorrow with lots of great games.

The Palo Alto region is the equivalent of the Baton Rouge regional last year. (Common link = LSU -- is there something bad in Louisiana?) LSU, La-Lafayette and NC State were all ranked in the top 20 and played there. LSU and Lafayette were actually top 10 teams in the same region. Crazy.

Hawaii may have looked bad in the tourney, but had a fantastic season. They lost pretty much only to tournament teams like Baylor, Fresno State, Oregon, and 2x to Georgia. They did lose to San Jose State and Liberty, but they beat Fresno State 2x in the regular season (including 18-2). They also beat Baylor, Cal, Oregon State (2x), Depaul, and Nebraska (2x). In the end they have to bring it in the tourney to back up their great results on the season.

There will be 34 games played tomorrow. Should be an awesome day for fans. Not sure how much is going to be televised.

The Fresno State win over Stanford was a good one tonight. I watched it online, and the video feed via the Stanford web site worked shockingly well. Mackin really threw well, and shutting out Stanford on its home field is no easy feat. Here's an amazing stat: Mackin has not allowed an extra-base hit in her last 10 games (all were complete-game pitching efforts and all were wins). Included in those 10 wins were 2 victories over Hawaii.

There are several televised games this weekend, mostly on ESPNU, but a couple of others on ESPN2 and I believe one on ESPN. The Palo Alto regional championship will be televised on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET Saturday.

And Hawaii did beat all of those teams you mentioned, charliecstl, but all of those wins were in Honolulu. Hawaii has somehow gone thru a 60-game season and played only 1 road game against a Top 25 opponent. That opponent was Fresno State, and the Bulldogs won that game 9-3. Hawaii is good, no doubt. But I'd like their chances a lot more if they were playing in Honolulu this weekend rather than L.A. Heck... who knows... maybe I'm underestimating my Bulldogs, and maybe UH and FSU are both going to come out winners this weekend. I was surprised LSU had as much trouble as it did with Cal State Northridge.

Well, it looked like it was going to be quite the wild weekend, but a couple of favorites settled in today and exerted more normalcy on the tournament. I was excited to see so many of the lower seeded teams taking it to the favorites. Most of them could just not sustain the momentum over the entire weekend. We did have a few upsets, but all of the higher seeds advanced.

The super-regionals should be interesting next weekend.

Arizona went through easily, but who expected Fullerton to be the only California team to make it through weekend one. The Wildcats are huge favorites next weekend.

Baylor and Michigan cruised and they both have terrific pitching staffs. I expect a nice matchup between the two and the home field may make the difference. Baylor gets to host in Waco.

Tennessee cruised and gets the Hawaii squad I picked to come through. They had some help from Loyola Marymount last night (0-19 against UCLA, but they knocked the Bruins out on their home field -- great moment last night for the underdogs). Hawaii is having an amazing season, but playing in Knoxville will make this matchup a bit more lopsided.

Texas A&M took out Houston twice today after losing to them yesterday. They get a matchup with Florida who is playing very sharp. This could be an upset, even though A&M has a great staff and will be tough at home.

On the other side of the bracket, Northwestern looked great and gets a gift in South Carolina. SC beat NC St and Oregon twice over the weekend to advance. They had the home field advantage, but were one of the last at-large teams in the draw. They are making the most of their chance. They are the only 4 seed to advance this weekend. Their run is probably over though once Eileen Canney takes the circle.

ASU/LSU will be one of the best matchups of weekend two. Katie Burkhart is great, but LSU has two dominating pitchers and an offense that can open it up. I expect LSU to prevail in Tempe.

Oklahoma looks great and is quietly making their way to the friendly confines of OK City. Depaul is an excellent team, but OK has pitching and hitting and is ready to make a run.

Washington and BAMA make up the last super-regional. This is in Seattle, but I think BAMA has the favored status here. They lost their first game this weekend (rather shockingly to Tenn Tech), but then won four in a row while scoring 45 runs. That is unheard of at this level of the game. They beat Cal 13-1 and then Tenn Tech 19-10 and 7-1 to storm into the second weekend. The offense is back on track and they have two excellent hurlers.

The conferences fell into place as expected. The SEC advanced 5 teams, the Big12 has 3, PAC-10 has 3, Big Ten has 2, and Depaul/Hawaii/Fullerton round out the draw. I think the best chances for upsets are Florida, LSU, and Bama. I think Arizona and Northwestern are virtual locks as they play the two biggest surprises of the first weekend.

Should be fun watching the games next weekend.

As I said earlier, crying about the seeding won't affect the outcomes. The stronger teams survived and the weaker teams were eliminated. All is as it should be!

The whole point of the selection committee is that the seedings and placements do make a TREMENDOUS difference in the outcomes of the tournament. To say that the strong teams will make it through misses the whole point of how the tournament is structured.

Two top 5 teams are traveling multiple time zones to lower ranked opponents' home fields next weekend. Why? Because the committee messed with the seedings and boosted Washington and ASU above the SEC teams they are playing. Home field is incredibly important.

Also, the seedings determine the order of play in Oklahoma City. There is no re-seeding of teams once the final 8 are known. Texas A&M is deserving of their seeding. But instead of playing a normal 5 seed in the opening game of the WCWS, they would have to play national favorite Tennessee which was dropped several seedings from where they should be.

You do have to beat everyone you play, but the whole point is you don't have to play everyone in the tournament. Where you are seeded can make the difference between an early exit and winning the whole thing.

Good points about the seedings affecting the outcomes. There is no way a team like South Carolina, for example, would have reached the Super Regionals if it had been accurately seeded, and not inexplicably been named a regional host to some inferior teams. It still is stunning to me that the 7th-best team in the SEC, South Carolina (12-16 SEC, 34-23 overall), got to host a regional comprised of the last-place team from the Big Ten, the last-place team from the Pac-10, and the ACC runner-up, all of whom were unranked!

The disparity in regionals were ridiculous. I guess because my Bulldogs were one of the biggest teams adversely affected by poor seeding, it makes me mad. 23rd-ranked Fresno State's reward for a WAC championship season (including beating Hawaii twice in the last month) was being sent to Stanford where the SEC champion and 3rd-ranked team in the country (LSU) and 18th-ranked team (Stanford) were part of the 4-team regional. The Bulldogs beat Stanford and then were locked in a 0-0 tie in extra innings with LSU before the Tigers won 1-0. Place those 3 teams in separate regionals and I firmly believe that all 3 would've reached the Super Regionals.

Baylor, a team that won the Big 12, yet lost during the regular season to both Hawaii and Nevada of the WAC, had a 4-team regional that consisted of unranked Harvard, unranked Hofstra, and unranked Albany University. That is unreal. And Baylor wasn't alone in getting an easy road to the Super Regionals. There were several others as well.

The NCAA has determined for women's softball that it wants teams in postseason play not to travel more than 350 miles. That's ridiculous. What the NCAA has created by this rule is a series of regional championships rather than a true national championship. Can you imagine if there was a basketball rule that required teams like North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky and Louisville to all face each other in regional or Super Regional play in order to advance to the Final Four each year? It would never happen. But in women's sports, I guess the NCAA just kind of figures, "oh, it's just women so who really cares?" That's sad.

I agree completely.

I disagree completely. Surprises abound all around with this tournament. Baylor slays the mighty dragon in Michigan to advance to Elite 8. Texas A&M also moves on to Oklahoma City. Yes, there are bound to be surprises all around and yes, things worked out exactly as they were supposed to in the end. Unfortunately for my Bruins, UCLA bowed out in the regionals.

Well, the benefit of being seeded in the top 8 was made all too clear as 7 of the 8 home teams got to OKC. Being given a favorable seeding in the tournament can make all the difference between being a good team that is eliminated in the super-regionals and getting some help advancing to the WCWS.

Two outstanding pitching performances today. Daniel Lawrie seems to be clicking on all cylinders these days. She threw the first no-hitter since 2003, although she did surrender an enearned run. Kind of one of those softball anomalies -- she throws a no-hitter but gets scored against. Depaul is the weakest team left in the tourney, but had some serious momentum after clubbing Oklahoma last weekend.

Eileen Canney may take her team all the way this year. She struck out 11, walked three (all intentional walks given to the same batter), and had only one legitimate base runner who got on base with a perfect bunt. There was one ball hit out of the infield the entire game. She was completely in charge against ASU.

Something has to give tomorrow as Lawrie and Canney will hook up in the winner's bracket.

A&M vs Tennessee is on next followed by Baylor and Arizona. All four teams are playing very well and have legitimate shots at making the championship series. The two winners tonight will have a much easier route, but these teams all have the pitching to come through the loser's bracket as well.

The next few days will see lots of softball. I hope the pitchers continue to throw well and we don't have any mercy games this weekend. There were 2 of them in the super-regionals which is pretty unforgiveable given the calibre of teams that were playing. Not surprising, the mercy games were all won by the home teams.

What a great day of softball! All four games were high quality, and all of the teams looked solid on the opening day of the World Series.

This evening, A&M battled Tennessee to a stand-still for six innings. Amanda Scarborough matched Monica Abbott pitch-for-pitch. The seventh inning brought a little bit of bad luck for the Aggies and that is all it took for the Lady Vols. Abbott was exceptional after a horrific start in the first inning. A&M has to be disappointed that they are the 4 seed and had to play the tournament favorite in the opening game.

In the nightcap, Baylor battled Arizona all the way. Zona hit a walk-off homer to lead off the ninth inning and kept themselves in the winner's bracket. Taryne Mowatt does not look overpowering, but she kept Baylor off balance all night. Lisa Ferguson continued her stellar pitching for the Lady Bears.

Glenn Moore who coaches the Baylor team is a former fast pitch star himself, and is looking mighty fine coaching third base. A small unexpected benefit of watching the game.

Tomorrow is winner's bracket night. Eileen Canney will try and continue her dazzling tourney performance. She may be pitching better than anyone else in the field. Daniel Lawrie will have something to say about that I am sure. Taryne Mowatt has to step back in the circle and battle Monica Abbott. This may a tough task given the pitch count tonight.

In 2001, the Wildcats rode Jennie Finch through the entire year. She had to pitch several extra innings in the national semifinal, and she stalled out in the seventh inning of the national championship game. This allowed the Cal Bears to come home with the crown. Many of these pitchers have pitched a whole lot of ball over the past four months. Mowatt, Abbott, Lawrie, and Burkhart in particular have had to shoulder the burden for their squads. Canney, Scarborough, Ferguson, and Adix all have had help during the season and are a bit fresher. This may prove important as the weekend progresses.

Arizona State has been eliminated. Texas A&M is now on the cusp of elimination, as well. Elimination Saturday is living up to its monicker today.

Well, this year's national championship series is a bit like a bride at a wedding. We have something old (Arizona is playing in its 12th national championship game/series in the past 17 years (7 titles) -- what an exceptional level of consistency), we have something new (Tennessee is in its first ever championship scenario), we have something borrowed (Arizona's #1 seed really belongs to the Lady Vols), and something blue (Arizona will have to wear those blue visitor uniforms in game two).

The softball was not as stellar after day one, but the two teams in the championship series have been excellent. I have to take my hat off to Taryne Mowatt. She doesn't look like a pitcher who can dominate. But she has thrown all of Arizona's innings in the post-season and threw five games in four days this weekend. She only went 4-1 and gave up just two runs (one of them unearned). She really was exceptional.

Monica Abbott looks like she is on a mission. She has been stellar as well including a 1-0 win over Arizona on Friday night. She has yet to give up a run in the tournament in three games. The one potential question mark is that her offense has barely scored. They beat Texas A&M in the final inning after failing to score the first six innings. They beat Arizona with just one unearned run. They knocked out Northwestern today only 3-0 even though those Wildcats got off to a horrific start in the first inning.

Arizona is starting to really click on offense and the Lady Vols may need to come up with a little more scoring to win. Plus, this is best of 3 games and Arizona is tough to beat 3x which is what Tennessee would have to do having already beat them once this weekend.

The championship series runs at 8pm each night for the next three nights. Should be good ball.

My analysis: Arizona has to fluster Monica Abbott to the point of making her surrender hits. They can do this by calling time out when she bobs her head down before she begins pitching. They could also bunt on her team, since they're not as stellar on defense as her pitching.

For Tennessee to win, they're going to have to manufacture runs, most likely by playing what's commonly referred to as "small ball". Get a runner on base and then bunt or sacrifice her into a scoring position. Otherwise, they can't match power for power with Arizona in the hits department.

It should be a great series, but I look for Arizona to take it in three games.

The best part about this topic is that we have three men talking over NCAA women's softball. How ironic is that?

make that 4. my BF and I were watching all weekend.

the catcher for Arizona has made some AMAZING plays through the tourney. but I'm pulling for Tennessee.

Their win over Arizona in the earlier round came down to one error and i'm sure at least the first game will be that close again.

Mowatt has thrown a LOT of balls and fatigue could be a big factor. some early hits by the Lady Vols could help.

Meanwhile, Abbot will be fresher. Her power may work against her though if Arizona can just slap for contact and use Abbot's velocity.

It's been a great tourney with some high scoring games.

I was watching the A&M/Baylor game at the gym on Saturday

I'm guessing Baylor won

I am actually in a different mindset about what styles the teams need to play.

I think Arizona is going to have to depend on the small-ball game to get their slappers and speedsters on base and make the infield play some balls. That may be their key to winning closer games. Tough to control small ball (esp bunting) with the heat and movement that Abbott brings.

I think Tennesse also would need to use a combination of small ball and timely hitting to get the W's. As evidenced tonight, early scoring made the big difference in the game.

I don't know how she has done it, but Taryne Mowatt should not have been as dominating as she has been throughout the series. I really believe she is a pretty solid, but not outstanding pitcher compared to her predecessors- she may prove me wrong and she could learn a lot over the next season, as she is only a junior. But nothing I have seen in her pitching style makes me say "WOW"

I am rooting for the Vols since DePaul and Northwestern are gone.

Well, Tennessee is half-way to their first national championship. There is still a lot of softball to play, but they definitely have a leg up here. Abbott was sharp as always. Mowatt gave up some key long balls which she has been prone to do at times throughout the season.

As we have all stated, she is not as dominant as her records would seem. However, she has done an amazing job for Arizona this year. And is an All-American. They said on the broadcast last night that Arizona has had an All-American pitcher every year since 1991. That is amazing and helps explain their dominance of the sport.

I don't know that this is their year, but the fact they are in the championship series is testament to their abilities.

One thing that might be in their favor tonight is they have all had several ABs against Abbott now. They will have their best chance tonight to start connecting.

rats. Tennessee should have won the title tonight. they left too many runners on base. heaps of credit to Mowatt for hanging in there. she matched Abbott through the game. both of these pitchers must be pretty frustrated with the offense.

so arizona scores because of an error by the 2nd baseman. when the teams met in the earlier round, it was an error by arizona's 2nd baseman that cost them the game. coincidence?

it was great to see Pat Summitt supporting the Vols and keeping her promise to Abbott to show up if they made the Championship game. i wonder if she'll stick around for game three?

Not rats at all! Kudos to the Arizona Wildcats for sucking it up and playing like champs. These truly are the best two teams and they've proven it with this championship series. For all the gripes and complaints I've heard about the seeding from my cohorts in real life and some of my colleagues here on this board, the best two teams are playing for the championship and proving that they are.

Arizona just needs to do what they did to Abbott last night, which is change things up and take it out of her hands. Once they forced Tennessee to play defense, they exposed them for the fraudulent defense they have. Congratulations to Mike Candrea for figuring it all out. With some luck, he'll figure out a new game plan with which to vanquish Tennessee!

Wow. What a great performance by Taryne Mowatt and the Arizona Wildcats. They were by no means the favorites to win a national crown this year, but they sure put it together at the right time. Mowatt definitely deserved the MVP award as she kept Tennessee scoreless over the last 17 innings in games 2 and 3. She may have had the most impressive performance I have ever seen at the WCWS. I am not talking about the most overpowering. I mean just sheer grit and determination to keep her team in the games.

Arizona has now repeated 3 times in its history. That means that 6 of their 8 championships have been back-to-back wins. That is impressive -- but especially this year. They graduated two all-Americans, and their two new freshman stars-to-be were academically disqualified from the season.

I do feel for Monica Abbott and the other Tennessee seniors. But they had more than their fair share of chances to win. They should have won last night and closed it out. They left 25 batters on base the last two games. That is pretty much unheard of in this sport to have that many baserunners in two games.

I thought Monica just came at the Zona hitters with the same stuff they had already seen three games in the last five days. They are too good at the plate to not mix it up and come at them with some adjustments. That showed as Zona had base-runners all night and had the huge fifth inning.

I have always liked Arizona and I ma happy for them. It is unfortunate that Tennessee came so close and did not get across the finish line. I hope the program continues to prosper.

Arizona won! They did exactly what I predicted and shook up Monica Abbott, keeping PAC-10 dominance intact. Tennessee got their on the arm of Abbott but couldn't do what all good teams do, put up a defense to support their pitcher. Abbott was the superior pitcher, but Arizona had the superior all-around defense. Thus, they won.

Congratulations to Coach Mike Candrea and his staff for repeating at the championship level!