University of Oklahoma Athletics

Big 12 Lands Record Eight Teams In NCAA Field

Big 12 Lands Record Eight Teams In NCAA Field

May 15, 2005 | Softball

DALLAS, Texas A Big 12 record eight teams were selected to compete in the 2005 Division I Women's Softball Championships field of 64, the NCAA announced on Sunday.

Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas A&M will represent the conference. It marks the first time eight teams from the Big 12 will participate in the championships, surpassing the seven team total in 1999.

Under the new NCAA Tournament format, 16 schools are hosting four-team double-elimination regionals, which begins championships action on Friday -Sunday. Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M were selected to host regional action. The field is then narrowed to eight super regionals featuring two teams in a best-of-three game series scheduled for May 27-28. The winners from those eight regions advance to the Women's College World Series on June 2-8 at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla., the site of all 10 Big 12 tournaments.

NCAA Release | NCAA Bracket | Norman Regional Bracket

Big 12 tournament champion Texas (42-11) clinched the league's automatic berth and the highest national seed for the conference at No. 4. The other conference teams that earned seedings include regular season champion Texas A&M at No. 5 and Oklahoma and Baylor are the No. 14 and 15 seeds, respectively.

The Longhorns will face Massachusetts at 6:30 p.m. (CT) Friday in the first round of the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. UT will be making its sixth appearance in the national tournament, including two trips to the Women's College World Series (1998 and 2003). Texas became the first No. 3 seed to win the Big 12 Tournament last Saturday with either the No. 1 or 2 seed winning the previous nine.

A&M (44-8) is slated to play McNeese State at 4 p.m. in College Station, Texas. The Aggies have won the NCAA title twice (1983 and 87) in a league-leading 16 tries, including four in a row -- they are tied with NU with the most appearances in the Big 12. The squad is coming off a season in which they won their first conference championship while tallying the most league victories (14) in school history.

The Big 12's most recent national champion OU (2000) will meet Wichita State in the first round in Norman, Okla. The Sooners (47-15) have made 12 straight and overall appearances, while advancing to the WCWS in each of the last five years since the title run. Oklahoma was the conference's lone representative in the WCWS in 04.

Baylor earned its second straight and overall berth into the NCAA Championships field after posting a school-best 47-12 overall record and fourth-place finish in the Big 12 with an 11-7 mark. The Lady Bears are scheduled to play Florida A&M at 7:30 p.m. (CT) Friday in Auburn, Ala.

Big 12 tournament runner-up Missouri will host regional action and face Southern Illinois at 2 p.m. The Tigers dropped the tourney title contest 2-0 after defeating Baylor twice in the same day to earn a spot in the championship. Mizzou is 42-13 on the season and will be competing in its third consecutive and 10th overall NCAA Championships.

KU returns to the NCAA Championships field for the first time since 1999. The Jayhawks (30-22) will meet Georgia Tech in the first round on Friday in Athens, Ga. at a to be determined time.

Nebraska extended its conference-leading NCAA Tournament appearance total to 16 with Sunday's selection. The Huskers posted a 35-21 record in 2005 thus far. NU, a seven-time WCWS participant (1982, 1984-85, 1987-88, 1998 and 2002), will host Iowa this weekend. The time of the contest is TBD.

Oklahoma State will take on Princeton on Friday in Tucson, Ariz. (Time TBD). The regional is hosted by the No. 3 national seed Arizona. The Cowgirls have compiled a 33-22 overall record. OSU will compete in its 14th national event this weekend, including six WCWS outings most recently in 1998.

Since the inception of the conference there have been a combined 46 overall NCAA Championships appearances by Big 12 softball teams. A league team has advanced nine times into the WCWS during the Big 12's nine-year history.

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Gasso, Landry, Parker, Barker, Dayton, Sanders Postgame vs Texas Tech
Monday, June 02
SB WCWS Highlights: OU 4, Oregon 1
Sunday, June 01
Gasso, Sanders, Emerling, Landry Postgame vs Oregon
Sunday, June 01