This week, Oklahoma softball begins what has become its annual spring journey along the super highway known as the NCAA Softball Championship, with the ultimate destination being the Women's College World Series a mere 20 minutes up the road in Oklahoma City.
The Sooners have also made an almost annual thing over the past nearly 15 years of never having to leave the city of Norman as they battle for one of the eight coveted spots that make up the WCWS tournament field.
Oklahoma eyes new SEC rivals and old Big 12 foes in NCAA Softball Championship
As the No. 3 national seed, Oklahoma was awarded home-field advantage in this year's NCAA Tournament and the opportunity to host both a four-team regional and, assuming a regional championship, a two-team Super Regional on the road to the WCWS.
The top-eight seeds in Oklahoma's 16-team quadrant include two teams out of the SEC and two from the Sooners' former conference, the Big 12: No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Mississippi State, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas State and No. 8 Kansas. Florida, Tech and Oregon are also top-16 overall seeds.
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Kansas (35-19) will likely pose the biggest challenge for OU in the Norman Regional this weekend. The Sooners have a long history with the Jayhawks, and own an 84-44 record all-time against Kansas and are 43-10 in games played in Norman.
The Sooners' probable Super Regional opponent will be No. 14 national seed Oregon (40-12), but the Ducks will have to get by Ole Miss to advance to Norman. OU is 13-6 all-time vs. Oregon and 5-0 in Norman.
The two teams met in last year's Women's College World Series, with the Sooners winning 4-1. They also faced each other in 2024 in the Norman Super Regional, with OU sweeping the Ducks to advance to the WCWS, where the Sooners went on to collect their fourth consecutive national championship trophy.
If Oklahoma is able to move on from what would be its eighth consecutive Super Regional championship, its opening-round WCWS opponent is likely to be either No. 6 Florida (48-10) or No. 11 Texas Tech (52-6) and two-time All-American pitcher Nijaree Canady, who pitched the Red Raiders to a 3-2 win over OU last season in the semifinals of the WCWS, eliminating the Sooners and preventing an unprecedented championship five-peat .
The Sooners have history with both Florida and Texas Tech, but it has been much more lopsided in favor of Oklahoma against Texas Tech. The Sooners are 73-8 against the Red Raiders all-time, but this is a much different and more dangerous Texas Tech team with Canady in the circle.
With OU only becoming a member of the SEC a year ago, the OU-Florida softball history is much shorter than OU's with former Big 12 foe Texas Tech. The Sooners and Gators have played just 13 times previously. The two teams have met several times since 2017 in the WCWS, with OU winning four of five games. The Gators took two of three from the Sooners last season in Gainesville during the regular season. OU and Florida did not play in the regular season this year.
If Oklahoma is to face No. 1 Alabama or No. 8 UCLA any time in the postseason in what would be a couple of dream matchups, it would have to be in the Women's College World Series, should one or both survive through Super Regional. A matchup with either team would be one that every softball fan would want to see, given the national attention to all three teams this season.
UCLA, of course, is the team that has been battling OU all season for NCAA home run supremacy. Both teams have shattered the previous record for team home runs in a single season and are more than 50 ahead of the next closest challenger. The Sooners and Alabama were tied for the SEC lead going into the last two weekends of the regular season before OU was able to win the championship outright on the final weekend.
How important is it to earn a top-eight national seed entering NCAA postseason play? Oklahoma has hosted both a regional and Super Regional 11 times in the 13 seasons since 2012 and advanced to the WCWS all 11 times. The Sooners were crowned national champions in six of those years (2013, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024) and were national runners-up twice (2012, 2019).
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