2024 Softball Tournament Bracket
How did the Committee do?
Hello everyone! It’s been a while, but it is softball postseason time and I have thoughts about what we saw during the tournament bracket selection show yesterday. While I do have my qualms with some of the teams and certainly the regionals, I would say the committee did a reasonable job. Perfect? No. Stuff I vehemently disagree with? Absolutely. Let’s break it down into some compact talking points before the fun begins later this week!
All 13 SEC Teams in.
It’s always a talking point, and we all saw the writing on the wall, but all 13 SEC teams got into the tournament this year. The only real question was if Ole Miss would slide in, and at the end of the day they managed to do so. The committee chair said they racked up 7 top 25 wins and that’s what put them over the hump. While I understand, it’s just odd to have a team that was just 6 games over .500 and a 7-17 conference record as basically a shoe in if you were listening to commentary. This isn’t a knock on Ole Miss, as the committee “said” they were one of the last 4 in. But at what point do we have to question how strong conference affiliation should play a role in at large bids? It’s not like the SEC will be any weaker moving forward.
Duke should be miffed.
Number 3 RPI, 10 wins against the top 25 RPI, a better non-conference strength of schedule than teams seeded higher than them, and winners of both the regular season and conference tournaments. No one cries for Duke unless you’re a Duke fan, but this team really should have been a top 8 seed. Apart from scheduling better out of conference, which I am sure they will do from now on, what could they have done? I forget which former softball player said this on Twitter, but I would like to also engage in her reckless speculation: If Florida State, heck even Clemson had the exact same resume, would they have been the 10 seed, or locked in as a top 8? Look, the 10 seed isn’t terrible and their path is still reasonable to get to Oklahoma City. That said, they have also been ladened with a tough regional to boot.
Georgia gets Tough Draw.
Speaking of tough regionals, don’t let what’s going to go down in Athens fly under your softball radar this weekend. When a pretty good UNC Wilmington is the “easy” team in your regional, you have some heavy hitters. Pundits may look and say well Georgia got nothing but mid majors so it’s a cake walk, but the other two schools are Charlotte and Liberty. Charlotte started off the year beating Florida State and Liberty beat LSU before heading into the conference tournament. This regional gives me the strong vibes of 2021 when JMU and Liberty both tag teamed to knock host Tennessee out before regional championship Sunday. I am not saying that’s what will happen again here, but the Bulldogs certainly have their work cut out for them.
Multi Bid Mid Majors.
Given the inherent bias we see when it comes to at large bids, it is always good to note when mid-major conferences receive multiple bids in these tournaments. Florida Atlantic, winners of the regular season in the AAC got an at large bid while Louisiana and South Alabama received at large bids out of the SunBelt. Louisiana is hosting a regional and their loss to Texas State in the conference championship was the reason for their at large status. South Alabama was always thought to be a shoe in, though it’s never a given when you’re not in a major conference. From these 2 conferences schools like Troy and Wichita State thought maybe they had an outside shot, but at the end of the day very good mid-major records and resumes will always give way to less good power conference ones. Either way, these two conferences especially will expect multiple bids as conferences for the foreseeable future.
Seeds/Hosting: Mostly right?
Another place where inherent bias shows up is when teams are seeded and therefore hosting regionals. Look, we get that some teams have exceptional facilities and will make for great TV, but do all of those teams deserve to host? What the committee did get spot on was actually awarding Louisiana a seed. They had a monstrous out of conference schedule, and after the understandably tough start have been on a tear. But when’s the last time a team with a losing conference record got to be a host site? Tuscaloosa has a wonderful atmosphere, but that was odd. Another less talked about but equally interesting decision the committee had was the reasonable discussion of whether or not to have Texas A&M host the regional or the SunBelt conference champion and consistently ranked this year Texas State. Most thought the two would end up in the same regional, just a matter of who would host. At the end of the day of course the committee went with the SEC, but they may not be able to stop the SunBelt especially from becoming a mid-major that has 1-2 teams hosting regionals annually moving forward.
Overall, I think the committee did a decent job. Texas absolutely deserved top billing and I’m not going to quibble too much with the at large bids in general. What is certain though is the fact that the tournament this year is wide open, and no teams is safe. While what I have written may seem mostly critical, I am more so just excited to get back to NCAA tournament softball again! There’s a ton of interesting storylines heading into it, and the games should live up to and exceed the hype!