Oklahoma softball misses No. 1 spot in another preseason ranking

The 2025 softball season is not starting like the others for the Oklahoma Sooners.

D1Softball released its preseason top 25 on Tuesday, and the four-time defending national champions were not at the top. The Sooners were ranked third behind fellow SEC members Florida and Texas, respectively.

It will be a season of new for the Sooners, though, just hopefully the result isn't different. OU will begin its first season in the SEC and will not start as the consensus preseason No. 1 team for the first time in three years.

The Sooners were also ranked No. 3 in the Softball America Preseason Top 25, which was released last week. Once again, it was Florida and Texas ahead of the Sooners.

OU will get Florida and Texas in back-to-back series late in the season. The Sooners will host Texas in the Red River Rivalry at Love's Field on April 25-27. That next weekend, the Sooners will travel to Gainesville to play Florida on May 1-3.

Three days after finishing up in Florida, the Sooners will go to Athens, Georgia, for the SEC tournament, which is scheduled for May 6-10. And that will be a loaded tournament to cap a challenging three weeks for the Sooners before starting the NCAA Tournament.

D1Softball's preseason rankings included nine SEC teams in the top 25. For comparison, OU's old conference, the Big 12, had three. Those ranked SEC teams made up over half of the top 10 with six teams ranked that high.

That shows the Sooners are in for maybe their toughest season ever under Patty Gasso. But competition hasn't hindered OU before on a softball diamond. Proof of that is winning four national championships in a row.