Pardon me while I make a trip to the ER & see if they can remove my head from my ass. I drifted into outer space for a moment and thought we were talking about baseball.
What happens in the SEC tournament has no bearing on whether any team gets into the WCWS. In LSU's case, a few wins in the tournament would help the RPI. The one thing the SEC tournament can do is secure home field for Super Regionals (IE: UF wins tournament, gets an RPI of #6.). Currently, based on the last RPI release, LSU is on the outside looking in to host a Super. Florida isn't that far off as well in spite of the SEC record this season. 1 Oklahoma 2 Washington 3 UCLA 4 Arizona 5 Florida State 6 Texas 7 Alabama 8 Minnesota 9 LSU 10 Florida
The pairings? That throws me a bit...how are the teams selected for the Supers? Is that what you're asking? Personally, the only thing I'm watching is how the top eight teams are seeded when the tournament starts. That's largely based on RPI standings (listed earlier.) A top eight seed means you've got home field advantage all the way through the Super Regionals. Of course that's something that can change in the middle of the tournament of one of those top eight seeds loses in the regionals. In LSU's case I'd be hoping for a SR seeding if for no other reason than a home field can negate some of the effects of a weaker pitching lineup.
General info.... Of the 64 teams that make up the bracket, 32 will qualify automatically. All but four of those teams will earn those AQ bids by winning conference tournaments. Four conferences (Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12 and West Coast) will award their AQ spots to the regular-season champion. Regionals | May 17 - 19, 2019 Regionals for the NCAA Division I Softball Championship will be held May 17 - 19, 2019 on 16 campus sites. At each campus site, a four-team, double-elimination tournament will be conducted and the 16 winning teams advanced to the Super Regionals. Super Regionals | May 23 - 26, 2019 Super Regionals for the NCAA Division I Softball Championship will be held May 23 - 26, 2019 on eight campus sites. At each site, two teams play in a best-of-three tournament format. The winners from each site advance to the NCAA Women’s College World Series. https://www.ncaa.com/championships/softball/d1/road-to-the-championship More specifically.... The NCAA championship manual says: "The RPI [Rating Percentage Index] is intended to be used as one of many valuable resources provided to the committee in the selection, seeding and bracketing process. It never should be considered anything but an additional evaluation tool. No computer program that is based on pure numbers can take into account subjective concepts (e.g., how well a team is playing down the stretch, what the loss or return of a top player means to a team or how emotional a specific conference game may be)." Consider however from a few years ago.... "history suggests calling the RPI one of many resources necessary for selection is like calling water one of many resources needed for swimming. Let's start with the 16 national seeds. Since 2007, which is when available RPI data begin, teams ranked in the top 16 of the final pre-selection RPI accounted for 105 of 112 national seeds. Only once in that span did a team ranked No. 20 or lower in the RPI earn a national seed (Long Beach State in 2008). That could be a hurdle for the Big Ten this season, as co-champs Michigan (18) and Nebraska (19), as well as Minnesota (17), are all currently on the outside looking in. There is some mobility within the seeds, but not as much as the caveat in the handbook might lead you to believe. A season ago, Arizona State was No. 11 in the pre-selection RPI but the No. 5 seed in the bracket. That is not the norm. Only four other times since 2007 has a team ranked No. 10 or lower ended up with one of the coveted top eight seeds (which come with the opportunity to host not just a regional but any potential super regional). That may be cause for alarm at Tennessee, which finished second in the SEC but is No. 13 in the most recent RPI. It isn't just the seeds that bear a striking resemblance to the RPI. When Iowa was left out a season ago while ranked No. 34 in the RPI, it became the only eligible team (i.e., a winning record and not reclassifying to Division I) in the past seven years that didn't receive an at-large bid after entering the selection process in the top 40. That's encouraging news for teams like Lipscomb, Hofstra, UAB, Northwestern and Wisconsin at the moment." "During team selection the top sixteen teams are given "national seeds", which are used for organizing the brackets. The first tier, called "regionals", consists of 16 locations that include four teams competing in a double elimination bracket. The regional containing overall #1 seed will be matched up with the regional containing the overall #16 seed, the #2 seed will be matched up with the #15 seed, and so on. The winner of each regional moves on to the second tier, the "super regionals". The super regionals are played at eight locations throughout the country and consist of the 16 surviving teams, with the higher seeded team usually hosting. Two teams are matched up at each location and they play a best-of-three series to determine who moves on to the Women's College World Series."
I'm thinking there's a really good chance for Florida to get one of the top eight seeds if they can get past UofSC and then LSU. It'll be alarming to a lot of fans who'll also see Florida's finish at #6 in the conference at 12-12. (I'll put the over/under on uncalled illegal pitches from Florida at six today.) I see LSU in the same boat at Florida if they can get past the Gators and Tennessee. Tim Walton has worn Barnhill's arm out this season which should give LSU an edge tomorrow. It's my opinion that there are seven locks for the Super's right now with the eighth spot up for grabs between UF, LSU, and Minnesota. I'd put a strong maybe next to Northwestern IF they win their conference tournament.
No locks until they get through regionals first. Somebody unexpected will lose there IMO. There may be no pitcher whose arm is more worn out right now than Jordan Dail from Oregon. She's the only scholarship pitcher they have. Barnhill has pitched 220 innings for 3,346 pitches. Dail is at 232 innings and 3,794 pitches. Dail never complains, always goes out on the mound like a giant killer. I feel bad for her.
By locks, I assumed everyone understood I was talking about the top eight seeds who would host the SR...and of course that's largely based on an unknown not coming out of a regional without the seating facilities they'd like. Yeah...saw the attrition at that program and mentioned it a while back. Tough break for that group. BTW, after a comment about A&M during today's game I learned they had a streak of three consecutive appearances in the WCWS as well: 1986-1988. The '87 year was a championship season.
