Cal Nabs Top Seed In NCAA Division I Championship
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – University of California, Berkeley was named the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship today when the NCAA Division I Softball Committee announced the 64-team field. The Golden Bears, champions of the Pacific-12 Conference, are 50-4 and will play Iona College, an automatic qualifier from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, May 18, in front of a home crowd in Berkeley.
Thirty conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 34 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and will play at campus sites this weekend.
Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition, when possible.
The Southeastern Conference led all conferences with nine teams selected to the championship. The Pac-12 placed eight in the championship while the Big 12 Conference had six qualifiers. Three teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: Florida Gulf Coast University, University of South Alabama and Valparaiso University.
Only 10 schools have been crowned the NCAA Division I softball champion since the tournament started in 1982, and eight are in this year's bracket.
To view the entire bracket, click here .
-Courtesy of the NCAA