2021 NCAA Softball Tournament bracket revealed: Predictions, schedule, top storylines to watch

With the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament bracket officially revealed, the Road to the Women’s College World Series is underway.

It’s been a little while since we’ve had a bracket set for the NCAA Softball Tournament. Because of a global pandemic, the 2020 NCAA softball season was cut short.

But, Sunday evening, 64 teams were chosen to compete in the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament. Now that the teams have been picked and the field is set, the tournament can happen yet again.

Unsurprisingly, the Oklahoma Sooners earned the top spot in the tournament. The Sooners were joined by UCLA, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, LSU, and Missouri as the top eight seeded teams in the tournament.

Here’s the full list of the 16 teams who will be hosting regionals this year:

1. Oklahoma
2. UCLA
3. Alabama
4. Florida
5. Oklahoma State
6. Arkansas
7. LSU
8. Missouri
9. Tennessee
10. Florida State
11. Arizona
12. Texas
13. Duke
14. Kentucky
15. Arizona State
16. Washington

Go ahead and check out the full bracket:

Schedule

The regional round of the tournament (a double-elimination mini tournament featuring four teams) is set to take place from Friday, May 21 and go through Sunday, May 23. The only exception is for the Tempe Regional, which features BYU who has a policy that prohibits playing on Sundays for religious reasons. To accommodate for that, the Tempe Regional will be played from Thursday, May 20 through Saturday, May 22.

After the regionals are the super regionals. Each regional has another regional which it has been paired with. The winners of each of the the regionals will face off in a best-of-three series from Thursday, May 27 through Saturday, May 29 or Friday, May 28 through Sunday, May 30.

And then after Super Regionals is the Women’s College World Series, which will feature the eight remaining teams and will be played from Thursday, June 3 through Wednesday, June 9 in Oklahoma City.

Unsurprisingly, there are a ton of games that’ll be played in the tournament. And if you’re looking to keep up with all of them, that is possible. The 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament will be showcased across a wide variety of ESPN channels and platforms. From the ACC Network to ESPN3 to the Longhorn Network to ESPNU, just about every ESPN property will be used at some point here.

For all of the broadcast information for the entire NCAA softball tournament, click here.

Who has the toughest path to the Women’s College World Series?

There are a ton of difficult and tricky roads to the Women’s College World Series, and I do not envy the one that Alabama has to go down to get to Oklahoma City.

From Clemson (who is ranked No. 20 in the RPI and is the No. 2 seed in the Tuscaloosa Regional) in its own regional to Kentucky (No. 18 in the RPI) and Notre Dame (No. 25 in the RPI) over in the Lexington Regional, Alabama has a few tough foes to get through if they want to compete for a championship this season.

Other teams with tough paths include whoever wins the Tempe Regional (I would not want to be the team that has to face off against UCLA, who probably wins the Los Angeles Regional) and LSU over in the Baton Rouge Regional. Having to take care of Louisiana in your own regional and then get through the winner of the Tallahassee Regional (which includes Florida State, Auburn, and UCF) seems less than ideal.

Who are the interesting teams to watch out for?

I’m really interested in seeing how Clemson competes in the Tuscaloosa Regional. The Tigers boast a record of 42-6 and thoroughly challenged the Duke Blue Devils in the ACC Tournament. There’s no such thing as a bad team that wins 40+ games in a season. Just about every team that can win that  much should be considered a threat. I suspect Alabama will be the team that comes out on top of the regional, but the Tigers could really challenge the tide.

An SEC team that is intriguing at the moment and happens to be a clear underdog in the NCAA tournament would be Mississippi State. The Bulldogs struggled through most of the season, particularly in SEC play, before getting hot right at the right moment and winning eight straight games, a streak that included wins over Tennessee, Georgia, and Ole Miss. They lost to Florida in the SEC tournament, but might be an interesting challenge for Oklahoma State and the others in the Stillwater Regional.

The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns have been really good all season. They’re on a four-game winning streak, taking the Sun Belt Conference with ease, and sit at No. 22 in the RPI. They’ve won 44 games this season and almost certainly have a chip on their shoulder as they were handed the No. 2 seed in the Baton Rouge Regional. Louisiana has lost twice to LSU so far this season as part of the “LSU Crossover,” which also featured Oklahoma State and Buffalo. Louisiana was able to beat Buffalo twice and Oklahoma State once that weekend. They’re a good team, will almost certainly be motivated, and could certainly challenge the Tigers on their own turf.

Which 16 teams make it to the Super Regionals?

With any good tournament, there’s bound to be some chaos and upsets. I’m hoping we’ll get to see some shocking results that keeps everyone on their toes as the 2021 NCAA Softball Tournament goes on.

Of course, if that happens, I fully expect these predictions to be wrong in some way, shape, or form. And if that happens, I’m okay with that.

But, right now, here are the 16 teams I expect to advance to the Super Regionals:

• Oklahoma
• Washington
• Alabama
• Notre Dame
• Tennessee
• Missouri
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Oklahoma State
• Oregon
• Louisiana
• Florida State
• Duke
• Florida
• Arizona State
• UCLA

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