Oklahoma still holds down first place

Division I college softball is all over the tubes. From morning to night, there’s conference tournaments being played throughout the weekend.

But not all the conferences. Those without tournaments are the Big Ten, the Big West, the Ivy League, the Mid American, the Mountain West, the Pac-12, and the West Coast, and their qualifiers for the national tournament will be the regular-season winners.

But those playing their opening round conference tournaments on television today are the Atlantic Coast (ACC)  the Sun Belt, the Southeastern (SEC), the Southland, the Atlantic 10, the Horizon, and the Patriot. Some are national, others are on local channels only.

Oklahoma is the No. 1 ranked team. The Sooners’ 39-game winning streak ended when they lost 6-4 to Oklahoma State in the opening game of the three-game “bedlam” series in Stillwater. But they bounced back to win the next two, 6-4 and 11-8.

So after winning its ninth straight Big 12 regular-season championship following a victory over 24th-ranked Wichita Sate, the Sooners are ranked first for the 11th consecutive week by the 2021 USA Today/Division I Top 25 Coaches Poll.

Their current overall record is 42-2, they accumulated 25 first-place votes and

793 points. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State (40-8) moved into ninth place.

Still in second place is the 2019 defending NCAA champion UCLA (38-3), which received six first-place votes and who play four games this weekend at 8th-ranked Arizona (35-10), which is a tough team to beat at home. The Bruins’ biggest challenge in the Pac-12 would be the Wildcats and Washington, which is 39-9 and ranked fifth.

Right behind UCLA is Alabama (42-7), which picked up the remaining first-place vote. Then comes Florida (40-8), which tied 6th-ranked Arkansas (39-7) for the SEC title but becomes the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament after winning 2-of-3 from the Razorbacks.

Rounding out the top 10 is No. 7 Florida State (38-9-1), then Arizona and Oklahoma State, followed by 38-9 Texas, which went 0-3 against Oklahoma in the Big 12. One new member to the poll is No. 25 Liberty (39-13). The one team that dropped out was No. 22 Georgia, the only other team to defeat Oklahoma.

UCLA has won the most national championships, 12, with its 1995 title later vacated by the NCAA Committee on Infractions. Arizona has won eight times and Oklahoma four times, winning three of the last seven. Patty Gasso has been its head coach since it initially won in 2000 over the Bruins.

The best overall records belonged to the 2008 Arizona State team (66-5), the 2000 Sooners (66-8), the 2001 Arizona champion (65-4), and Michigan in 2005 at 65-7. UCLA has been in 18 finals, Arizona in 13, Oklahoma in six, and Fresno State has won only once in five finals.

James Madison is ranked only 22nd, but its 31-1 record is the best in the top 25. The ACC’s Clemson is 13th with a 40-5 record, while the Big Ten’s Michigan is 18th and is 32-6. The SEC has landed eight schools in the top 25, the Pac-12 five, and the Big 12 and ACC three each.