BRACKET
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Three American Athletic Conference softball teams were selected for the 2016 NCAA Softball Championship, the NCAA Division I Softball Committee announced on Sunday.
Tulsa, the automatic qualifier from The American, will play in the Norman Regional on Friday vs. Ole Miss. The game will be carried live on ESPN3 at 6:30 p.m. eastern. UCF will battle Florida Atlantic in the Gainesville Regional (Friday, Noon ET, ESPNU), while USF takes on South Carolina in the Tallahassee Regional Friday at Noon eastern (SEC Network).
Thirty-two conferences were awarded an automatic qualification, while the remaining 32 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and will play at campus sites this weekend.
Team pairings were determined by geographic proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition.
Regional play begins May 20-22, followed by the Super Regionals on May 26-29. The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is June 2-8 in Oklahoma City, Okla. at SA Hall of Fame Stadium - OGE Energy Field. Select Regional, all Super Regional sites and all 15-17 games of this year's WCWS will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks.
Pairings (American Athletic Conference Selections Only)
[*] Indicates host institution
Gainesville Regional – May 20-22 at Gainesville, Florida
Florida Atlantic (50-7) vs.
UCF (36-20) – Noon ET, ESPNU
Alabama State (27-24) vs. No. 1 seed Florida* (53-5) – 2:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Tallahassee Regional – May 20-22 at Tallahassee, Florida
South Carolina (44-14) vs.
USF (44-14) – Noon ET, SEC Network
No. 8 seed Florida State* (48-8) vs. Florida A&M (27-28) – 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN3
Norman Regional – May 20-22 at Norman, Oklahoma
Tulsa (35-19) vs. Ole Miss (39-20) – 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN3
No. 3 seed Oklahoma* (47-4) vs. Wichita State (35-19) – 9 p.m. ET, ESPN