The 2026 college softball season came to an end Thursday night with the Texas Longhorns crowned as national champions for a second straight season after defeating Texas Tech in the Women's College World Series' championship series.
Since the calendar turned over to welcome a new century 26 years ago, for the Oklahoma Sooners not to be part of the Women's College World Series has been an extremely rare occurrence. This season was one of those unique occasions.
Since the 2000 season, Oklahoma has appeared in 18 of the 25 WCWS. The 2020 season was canceled a little over a month into the season because of COVID-19. The Sooners were 20-4 at that point and likely would have made it to Oklahoma City as a participant that season as well.
Only UCLA, with 19 appearances, has been to the WCWS more times this century than the Sooners. Three other nationally acclaimed programs -- Alabama (16), Arizona (13) and Florida (13) -- have been there plenty as well, but none has come away with the championship trophy in hand as often as Oklahoma has in the past 25 years
A rare WCWS without Oklahoma actually trends well for Sooners
In the 18 trips to the WCWS this century, Oklahoma teams have produced all eight of the Sooners' national championships, tied for the second most all-time, and all under head coach Patty Gasso. The Sooners have won six of the last 10 WCWS titles, including a record four in a row from 2021 to 2024. In addition to the eight national championships since the 2000 season, OU also has added two runner-up finishes in 2012 and 2019.
The next closest team is UCLA, the all-time leader with 12 national titles, but only four of those championships have been in the last 25 years. Arizona owns three national championships in the past quarter century, along with a couple of runner-up finishes, and Florida has won the WCWS twice since 2000 but has been a runner-up three times.
Read more: Sooners' disappointing season still revealed an exciting truth about Oklahoma's future
The last time Oklahoma failed to make it to Oklahoma City and the WCWS in June was in 2015. The No. 11 Sooners lost to No. 5 Alabama in three games in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional. Following that season, OU made it to the WCWS nine straight seasons and just twice failed to make it to the championship series, winning six national championships.
The Sooners, like most every team in the sport, is going to lose some key players off of its 2026 roster, but with as much as 75% of the roster and 67% of the offensive production set to return in 2027, next season's OU team should be even stronger and more seasoned than this past season.
Based on the historical record, the chances of Oklahoma returning to its favorite home away from home at this time next season are pretty high. And the chances of success once they get there is always sky high.
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