Committee Chair explains choice between No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Oklahoma for 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament

The 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament will include a record number of teams from one conference with the SEC having 14 seeds. Nine of those were in top sixteen hosting regionals and seven of the top eight could be hosting super regionals, including the top two overall seeds in the field in No. 1 Texas A&M and No. 2 Oklahoma.

Kurt McGuffin, the selection committee chair, made an appearance on the special and, with that, would explain their reasoning that the Aggies (45-9) would be the top overall seed in the bracket as compared to the Sooners (45-7), who are the four-time defending champions. They went with A&M there over OU as they felt that the Aggies had a resumé with better results against their strength of schedule.

“Well, two quality opponents in Texas A&M and Oklahoma,” said McGuffin. “And I think what set apart Texas A&M was they have 19 Top-25 wins, which is number one in the country in wins in the Top-25. They also have had two quality non-conference wins versus Florida State and Texas Tech.”

“I think those were the two pieces that set them to the No. 1 seed,” McGuffin said.

These two teams could have settled this on the field this weekend in Athens during the championship match in the SEC Tournament. However, rain forced the game to be cancelled by the league with Texas A&M and Oklahoma being declared as co-champions.

Texas A&M went 29-2 in the non-conference this season before posting a record of 16-7 in the SEC. That record featured wins over tournament teams like UCF, Oklahoma State, and Virginia in the Clearwater Invitational, Florida State twice and Southeastern Louisiana in the Graf Classic, and Texas Tech twice in the Texas A&M Invitational during the non-conference and then series wins over Alabama (3-0), Auburn (2-1), Georgia (2-0), LSU (3-0), and Tennessee (2-1) in conference play. They then defeated South Carolina and Texas in the SEC Tournament before their matchup with OU rained out. Nine of those wins came against teams hosting in this tournament, including five against those hosting in Super Regionals.

Oklahoma has been as consistent as any program in making the Women’s College World Series since 2011. However, for the first time ever, it will be Texas A&M who will be the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament.