The No. 1 softball team in the country isn't even in the top 25.
The first RPI rankings of the 2025 softball season were released and had the Oklahoma Sooners all the way down at No. 26 despite being undefeated and ranked No. 1 in every major poll.
The Sooners just got the top spot in the polls last week thanks to a 19-0 start four weeks into the season. The defending four-time national champions began the season at No. 3 in every major preseason poll behind fellow SEC members Florida and Texas, which are still with OU atop every set of rankings but the RPI.
Like those major polls, though, the top 3 teams also hailed from the SEC in the RPI, but was a completely different set of teams. The RPI top 3 featured Auburn (19-1), Texas A&M (20-2) and South Carolina (19-0), respectively.
In the latest ESPN.com / USA Softball Collegiate Top 25, those teams are listed No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 10 South Carolina and No. 17 Auburn.
The RPI, though, is not voted on, nor does it take into account preseason rankings, the eye test, past success or whatever else might influence voters.
RPI is calculated using a team's winning percentage, its opponents' winning percentage and its opponents' opponents' winning percentage. Basically, there's a major emphasis not just on winning, but who a team beats and strength of schedule.
The lone knock on Patty Gasso's squad right now is its strength of schedule. Gasso put together a rather lackluster slate up front while rebuilding a roster this year and enduring the program's first season in the daunting SEC, which will load the rest of OU's schedule.
So far, the Sooners have played and beaten only one ranked team in then-No. 23 Baylor. However, at 10-10, Baylor hasn't been ranked since OU knocked the Bears out of the top 25. That .500 record for Baylor also doesn't help OU's cause.
There will be nothing easy about the Sooners' schedule from now on, though, which is exactly what Gasso predicted.
The Sooners this weekend start their first go in the SEC with a three-game series against No. 10 South Carolina, which is the only other undefeated team left in Division-I college softball besides OU.
The most recent ESPN.com / USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 featured 13 SEC teams, including the entire top 5. With that, every weekend series but one left on OU's schedule will be against a ranked opponent. The only one not, Missouri, just dropped out of the top 25 last week.
Regardless of a roster rebuild or gauntlet ahead, it's safe to assume the Sooners will still win a lot more than they lose the rest of the way, while it's also a good bet they won't keep that zero in the lost column.
The RPI rankings actually mean more than the other major polls, but none of them really matter until the end, and by then, the Sooners will be much closer to the top than to No. 26.