The 2025 Women's College World Series begins today, with the sport's most prestigious organizations taking advantage of this week's NCAA softball spotlight to bestow awards on the season's top athletes.
Arkansas first baseman Bri Ellis earned USA Softball's 2025 Collegiate Player of the Year title on Tuesday, with the senior beating out a shortlist that included Nebraska pitcher Jordy Bahl and Texas Tech ace NiJaree Canady — who won the award in her 2024 sophomore season.
A menace at the plate, Ellis led the NCAA in on-base (.639) and slugging percentages (1.090). She finished the year with 26 home runs — the third-most in the nation — while racking up 72 RBIs, both setting single-season records for the Razorbacks.
Wednesday saw both Bahl and Canady take home hardware of their own, with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association naming the Nebraska redshirt junior their 2025 National Player of the Year while the Texas Tech transfer snagged Pitcher of the Year for the second straight season.
A two-time national champion with Oklahoma before transferring to the Cornhuskers, Bahl is the only player to rank in the Top 10 for both batting average and ERA, claiming multiple program records at the plate while tossing 26 wins from the circle. This season, she became just the fifth Division I athlete to ever record 20+ wins and 20+ home runs in a single campaign.
Another two-way titan, Canady leads the nation with a lights-out 0.89 ERA on the season, allowing a Division I-low of 3.65 hits per seven innings while leading the Red Raiders in long-ball production with 11 home runs.
How to watch the winners of the 2025 college softball awards
Despite their individual achievements, only Canady's Texas Tech survived last weekend's Super Regionals, meaning fans must wait until the 2026 NCAA season to catch rising Nebraska senior Bahl back in action.
It's a shorter wait to watch Ellis, however, as the Arkansas grad will begin her pro career with the Talons in the brand-new Athletes Unlimited Softball League, which starts its inaugural season on June 7th.
As for Canady, she'll look to take the Red Raiders on a deep run in Oklahoma City. No. 12-seed Texas Tech will face unseeded Ole Miss in both teams' first-ever WCWS game at 7 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on ESPN2.
After a first-round weekend of pitcher's duels and red-hot bats, the 2025 NCAA softball tournament's best-of-three Super Regionals field is set — and it's missing four of the 16 national seeds.
No. 10 LSU fell on Saturday after two upset losses to unseeded SE Louisiana, before Sunday saw No. 13 Arizona and No. 14 Duke follow suit while unseeded Ole Miss, Georgia, and Nebraska all punched second-round tickets.
Eventually ousting SE Louisiana in the winners' bracket to advance to their first Super Regionals in 11 years, the Huskers rode in on the back of two-time All-American pitcher Jordy Bahl, with the Oklahoma transfer throwing 12 innings and hitting four home runs across Nebraska's three Regional games.
Elsewhere, unseeded Liberty booked a program-first trip to the Supers by eliminating top-seed Texas A&M — the first time the NCAA bracket's overall No. 1 seed failed to advance from Regionals.
Should they similarly bounce No. 16 Oregon this weekend, Liberty will become just the second mid-major team to make the Women's College World Series (WCWS) since 2014, joining James Madison's 2021 Cinderella run.
Rounding out the rest of the Super Regional round's 16 teams are No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 5 Florida State, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee, and No. 8 South Carolina, as well as No. 9 UCLA, No. 11 Clemson, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 15 Alabama, and the aforementioned No. 16 Ducks.
Super Regional weekend to feature blockbuster matchups
The 16 contenders will battle head-to-head for eight available WCWS berths, with the four-time defending champion Sooners now leading the field.
To advance, however, Oklahoma must first outlast Alabama, a team with which the Sooners have a long, contentious postseason history — the pair have faced off in five of the last 12 NCAA tournaments.
After Oklahoma bounced Alabama from the 2019 WCWS semifinals — the last time the pair squared off before becoming SEC rivals — the Tide enacted revenge by narrowly beating the Sooners in April's conference play, teeing up a tense weekend Super Regional series.
After narrowly missing this weekend's hosting rights as the No. 9 seed — UCLA's lowest seeding since 2016 — the Bruins proved why they are the sport's winningest program, run-ruling ever Regional game while allowing just two runs all weekend.
The 12-time champions will now travel to Gamecock territory, where No. 8 South Carolina will try to boost the Bruins and book their first WCWS ticket in 28 years.
Powerhouses still rule the diamond, but parity has never been higher in college softball, with this year's NCAA tournament already delivering whiplash results.
How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball Super Regionals
The best-of three NCAA softball Super Regionals kick off on Thursday and run through the weekend, with possible winner-take-all clashes finalizing the WCWS slate on Sunday.
First games are as follows:
- No. 12 Texas Tech at No. 5 Florida State, 7 PM ET on Thursday (ESPN2)
- No. 11 Clemson at No. 6 Texas, 9 PM ET on Thursday (ESPN2)
- Georgia at No. 3 Florida, 11 AM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
- No. 9 UCLA at No. 8 South Carolina, 1 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
- No. 15 Alabama at No. 2 Oklahoma, 5 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
- Nebraska at No. 7 Tennessee, 7 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
- Ole Miss at No. 4 Arkansas, 8 PM ET on Friday (ESPNU)
- Liberty at No. 16 Oregon, 10 PM ET on Friday (ESPNU)
College softball is back, with a new-look Oklahoma team kicking off the 2025 NCAA season in pursuit of a fifth-straight Women's College World Series win.
Despite Oklahoma's ongoing dominance, 2025's lineup does promise significantly higher parity than seasons past.
Having graduated a number of last year's stars — including a senior class that snagged four straight national titles — the Sooners enter the season ranked third.
Instead, 2024 runner-up Texas takes the top spot, followed by perennial contenders Florida at No. 2. Both teams enter 2025 with the majority of their rosters from last season intact, earning them an edge over the revamped Sooners.
Texas on top as SEC looms
Still hunting a first national championship, Texas returns with six starters and four of their five 2024 pitchers — including then-freshman phenom Teagan Kavan, who led the team with 20 wins last year.
Meanwhile, last season's Big 12 Player of the Year, junior catcher Reese Atwood, is back to lead the Longhorn offense.
After joining rival Oklahoma in flipping to the SEC this year, Texas is gearing up to meet their new conference foes with the No. 1 target on their backs.
"It's a great honor, to tell you the truth," Texas head coach Mike White said about the preseason ranking. "And now we got to back it up. We’ve had a team that's been called young in the years past, and now we're a little more mature."
"We have a tough slate of games ahead of us, and then, of course, the gauntlet of the SEC is ahead of us," White noted. "We’ve really just got to go play good softball now."
The impact of conference realignment will extend beyond the SEC this season. The sport's historic dynasty No. 6 UCLA is now competing in the Big Ten while No. 4 Oklahoma State is taking over the top spot in the Big 12 rankings.
2025 NCAA softball season takes the field
As multiple teams travel to warm-weather destinations to start the season, the first week of competition showcases a slate of top-ranked matchups.
With a top-tier win already in the books, No. 4 Oklahoma State opened their 2025 campaign with a bang at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge on Thursday. Buoyed by a trio of home runs, the Cowgirls handed No. 12 Florida State a 9-6 loss.
Waiting on deck at this week's NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida, are two ranked games featuring superstar pitchers.
First, No. 16 Nebraska ace Jordy Bahl — a two-time NCAA champion with Oklahoma — will likely take the circle against No. 5 Tennessee on Thursday. If she gets the start, it will mark her first game in nearly a year, as the Cornhusker transfer suffered a season-ending ACL injury in last year's opener.
Then on Friday, a revamped No. 10 Texas Tech side will face No. 25 Mississippi State, with former Stanford pitcher NiJaree Canady likely leading the charge.
The 2024 National Player of the Year transferred after her sophomore season with the Cardinal, as Texas Tech sealed the deal via a record-shattering $1 million NIL contract.
How to watch this week's Top 25 NCAA softball games
Look for Bahl to lead No. 16 Nebraska against No. 5 Tennessee at 7 PM ET on Thursday, before No. 25 Mississippi State will contend with Canady and No. 10 Texas Tech at 5 PM ET on Friday.
Both games will stream live on the GameChanger app.
In the hours after Jordy Bahl announced her commitment to Nebraska, it became evident the star softball pitcher was already having an impact.
According to reporter Mitch Sherman of The Athletic, Nebraska’s athletic department took 2,124 requests for softball season tickets in the days following Bahl’s announcement. To put that in perspective: The program had 365 season-ticket holders for the 2023 softball season and just 26 requests for 2024 prior to Bahl’s announcement.
In her two years at the University of Oklahoma, Bahl won two national titles and finished with a 44-2 record. She was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2023 Women’s College World Series. The native of Papillon, Neb., cited her desire to grow softball in her home state when she announced her decision to transfer.
“I am excited thinking about growing the game that has provided me so many opportunities for growth, in the home state, a current overlooked state for girls in softball at all ages, and I am excited to finish the softball journey right where it began,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/6OBFmG5VEE
— Jordyn Bahl (@jordybahl) June 12, 2023
After leading Oklahoma to a third straight title at the 2023 Women’s College World Series, sophomore pitcher Jordy Bahl will return to her home state of Nebraska to continue her career, she announced Monday.
A native of Papillion, Nebraska, Bahl enters the transfer portal fresh off a star performance at the WCWS, in which she tossed 24 ⅔ scoreless innings across five games and won the Most Outstanding Player award. She recorded a three-inning save in the series-clinching win against Florida State.
While Bahl initially did not specify a destination, she revealed Thursday that she will join the Nebraska Cornhuskers. She had committed to the Cornhuskers as a high school freshman before reopening her recruitment and joining the Sooners.
“I have decided to return home and play the game I love, closer to the things that have made me who I am and that have always been more important to me than this game,” Bahl wrote.
Her career ERA for Oklahoma is 1.00. The two-time All-American finished the 2023 season with a 0.90 ERA, second in the country behind Stanford’s NiJaree Canady, and helped the Sooners finish the season on an NCAA record 53-game winning streak. Yet she will not be on hand as the team looks to extend that streak next spring.
Bahl described the move as “bittersweet,” and she thanked the Oklahoma program, her teammates and her coaches for the opportunities she received. But she also described the difficulty of being away from her home, and her excitement to grow the game in the “overlooked state” of Nebraska.
“I am excited to finish the softball journey right where it began,” she wrote.
Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso supported Bahl’s decision, describing her as “the ultimate competitor” and praising her “approach and dedication to the game.”
“We’re understanding of her situation and certainly want her to be the happiest she can be,” Gasso said.
After 2 years of wonderful memories, I’m excited for 2 more representing the Nebraska Cornhuskers. This state, these people, and this N are all things I’m excited, proud, and thankful to be a part of. @HuskerSoftball pic.twitter.com/TctJwJgik3
— Jordyn Bahl (@jordybahl) June 15, 2023
Sophomore pitcher Jordy Bahl has propelled Oklahoma softball to the brink of a third consecutive Women’s College World Series title.
The Sooners’ winning streak reached 52 games with Wednesday’s 5-0 victory against Florida State, which puts them one game away from a third consecutive national title.
Bahl tossed a complete-game shutout, adding to her already impressive WCWS run. She has thrown 21 ⅔ scoreless innings, including 30 strikeouts compared to just 12 hits and three walks.
Jordy Bahl is an absolute machine 💪 #WCWS pic.twitter.com/tmY4O8b0td
— ESPN (@espn) June 8, 2023
“She is made to be able to do that,” Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso said. “She wants the ball like nobody’s business. Not that we don’t have faith in our others. It’s just she is like a very, very hot pitcher right now. She’s throwing the best she has all season right now.
“You want to take advantage of that without running her too hard where she’s going to run out of gas.”
And Bahl can contribute on offense too. She served as a pinch runner in Wednesday’s win, and she provided a key boost.
“Jordy has wheels,” teammate Kinzie Hansen said. “She runs circles around us at practice sometimes. She strikes us out, too. It’s all over the place.”
Those wheels came in handy, as Bahl scored the first run for Oklahoma in what had been a scoreless game through three innings.
“I think base running is really fun,” Bahl said with a smile on Wednesday. “So when I went out there, I was thinking just be fast but be smart.
“Get a good jump. If the ball is in the dirt, you’re going, but get a good jump.”
The Sooners added two more runs in the fourth inning after Bahl got the team on the scoreboard, then one each in the fifth and the sixth.
“From that point on, everything just started,” Gasso said. “We started finding some gaps, get a little more confidence in what we’re doing.”
The Sooners will look to clinch the series – and a third straight WCWS title – on Thursday night.