Participants named for NCAA field

INDIANAPOLIS – Arizona State was named the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship Sunday when the NCAA Division I Softball Committee announced the 64-team field. The Sun Devils, champions of the Pacific-10 Conference, own a 50-6 record and will play North Dakota State, an automatic qualifier from the Summit League, on May 20 in front of a home crowd in Tempe, Ariz.

Thirty conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 34 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 geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition, when possible.

The Big 12 Conference led all conferences with eight teams in the championship. The Southeastern Conference and Pac-10 placed seven in the championship while five teams from Conference USA were selected.

Fresno State remains the only team to be selected to all 30 championships. Four teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: Jackson State, Jacksonville, Memphis and New Mexico State.

Only 10 schools have been crowned the NCAA Division I softball champion since the tournament started in 1982, and nine are in this year’s bracket.

Championship Structure
The Division I championship allows for a field of 64 teams. The championship will be three weekends of competition. Four teams will participate at each of 16 regional sites in a double-elimination tournament. Sixteen teams were seeded and placed at one of the regional sites. Two regional sites (Ann Arbor and Tempe) will be televised in their entirety on the ESPN family of networks.

The regional winners will advance to super regional competition for a best-of-three series that will be conducted either May 26-27, May 27-28 or May 28-29 at eight campus sites. For the third consecutive year, all Super Regional games will be televised on the ESPN family of networks.

The remaining eight teams will advance to the WCWS, an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. The championship final will be a best-of-three-series. The WCWS will be conducted June 2-8 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

Selection Process
The NCAA Division I Softball Committee selected teams from the following eight regions to participate in the championship: Central, East, Northeast, South, Mideast, Midwest, West and Pacific. Thirty conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2011 championship. 

Seeidngs and SitesTeams were selected to the field of 64 teams with the top 16 teams seeded in order, and the remaining teams placed in regional brackets to create balanced competition and avoid conference matchups, when possible.

2010 Championship Highlights
UCLA captured its 11th national title by defeating Arizona 6-5 in eigth innings and 15-9 in championship series games one and two, respectively. UCLA won the national title behind the efforts of Most Outstanding Player Megan Langenfeld and all-tournament team honoree Samantha Camuso and Andrea Harrison. UCLA completed the series with a record of 5-0.