The NCAA softball national championship bracket is set

The GIST: With conference tourney champs crowned and the NCAA bracket finalized, 64 Division I (DI) teams now know their path to June’s eight-squad Women’s College World Series. And as fans process an electric regular-season finale and postseason start, the road to Oklahoma City looks more chaotic than ever.

The automatic qualifiers: Thirty-two squads punched their tickets by winning their conference tournaments this weekend, including three-time defending national champ Oklahoma, whose Big 12 title helped the Sooners secure the No. 2–seed.

• Of all the weekend’s upsets, diving saves, and walk-off wins, No. 4–seed Florida captured the most hype: They plowed through the cutthroat SEC tournament, winning each of their three games by at least four runs.

• As for Dayton, Siena, and Southeastern Louisiana, their conference championships were especially sweet because they clinched each team’s first-ever NCAA tournament ticket. Nothing like a first-selection celly.

The at-large selectees: Despite falling to powerhouse rival Oklahoma in Saturday’s Big 12 title game, the Texas Longhorns still snagged the national bracket’s top seed. In fact, most of the 16 seeds went to at-large squads: Other than the aforementioned Florida and Oklahoma, No. 6 UCLA and No. 10 Duke were the only conference champs to earn a seed.

• And as the only mid-major teams to capture rare at-large bids, No. 13 Louisiana, South Alabama, and Florida Atlantic are feeling extra-special today. As they should.

What’s next: Friday kicks off a veritable softball tsunami, with 112 potential games on deck for this weekend. Hosted by the 16 seeded squads, each three-day Regional pits four teams against one another in double-elimination action, with a trip to the Super Regionals on the line. Only four more sleeps…