Texas softball made program history on Friday, winning the 2025 Women’s College World Series (WCWS) to claim a first-ever national championship in their eighth trip to Oklahoma City.
The No. 6-seed Longhorns completed the best-of-three championship series with a dominant 10-4 victory over No. 12-seed Texas Tech, setting a program wins record with 56 on the season.
"This is why I came to Texas," said grad student first baseman Joely Mitchell following the championship win. "This is everything I dreamed of as a kid."
Anchored by star sophomore pitcher Teagan Kavan — who took home the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award after not allowing a single earned run in the nearly 32 WCWS innings she threw — Texas's title is the SEC's first in 10 years. The Longhorns now join only Florida and Alabama in the conference's elite NCAA softball champions club.
The Longhorn bats led the charge on Friday, plating five runs in the first inning — the most allowed in a single inning by Red Raiders superstar pitcher NiJaree Canady in her three-season NCAA career.
While that initial push ended up being enough to seal the win, senior third baseman Mia Scott put an exclamation mark on the victory by blasting a fourth-inning grand slam, notably doing so with a torn ACL.
2025 WCWS sets attendance, viewership records
The Longhorns' historic title run wasn't just a victory for Texas, however, as the 2025 WCWS claimed additional wins far beyond the Lone Star State.
With 119,778 fans packing into Oklahoma City's Devon Park across the nine-day competition, the 2025 tournament broke the WCWS attendance record.
The record-shattering didn't end there, as an average of 2.1 million viewers tuned into Thursday's championship series clash, making it the most-watched WCWS finals Game 2 in history — and the fifth most-watched NCAA softball game ever on ESPN platforms.
The rising value of college softball is also impacting players' bank accounts, with rising senior Canady reportedly inking a second seven-figure NIL deal to remain with Texas Tech prior to Friday's decisive Game 3.
"I've been around a lot of softball players, I've never been around a better teammate and a better person," Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco said about Canady following Friday's game. "She's an unbelievable talent. I believe she's the top player in college softball.... Her standards for everything is excellence."
The attendance, viewership, and NIL wins aren't just boosts for collegiate softball. The sport's rise is also fueling a new professional venture, with former NCAA stars launching pro league AUSL on Saturday — strategically timed to capitalize on the momentum of a historic 2025 WCWS.
SEC firepower will fuel the 2025 Women's College World Series (WCWS), as No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee, and unseeded Ole Miss all advanced out of this weekend's Super Regionals to book trips to Oklahoma City.
The SEC's five teams ties the record for most WCWS-bound squads from a single conference, with the additions of former Big 12 powerhouses Oklahoma and Texas notably boosting the league's WCWS roster this year.
Big Ten newcomers No. 9 UCLA and No. 16 Oregon plus the Big 12's No. 12 Texas Tech round out the eight teams entering the double-elimination tournament later this week, all battling for one of two spots in next week's best-of-three championship series.
Despite coming into the postseason as the No. 2 seed, the Sooners are still the team to beat as they hunt their fifth straight NCAA softball title.
With their 18th program ticket to OKC, Oklahoma's consistency in advancing to the national championship's last stop is dwarfed only by UCLA: The Bruins have appeared in 34 editions of the WCWS, missing the final cut only nine times in NCAA history.
In contrast, both Ole Miss and Texas Tech will be making their WCWS debuts after upsetting top seeds last weekend.
The Rebels, who first eliminated No. 13 Arizona in Regionals, outlasted No. 4 Arkansas to book their first-ever WCWS trip on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders are flying high behind transfer pitcher and 2024 National Player of the Year NiJaree Canady, emerging victorious in their first-ever Super Regional with two straight wins over No. 5 Florida State.
How to watch the 2025 Women's College World Series
Oklahoma City veterans and debutants alike will begin their WCWS campaigns on Thursday, when all teams will contend in the tournament's initial four games.
Kicking off the 2025 WCWS is an all-SEC afternoon session, with No. 6 Texas facing No. 3 Florida at 12 PM ET before No. 7 Tennessee takes on No. 2 Oklahoma at 2:30 PM ET.
Evening play pits the newcomers against each other as Ole Miss clashes with No. 12 Texas Tech at 7 PM ET, with a Big Ten battle between No. 16 Oregon and No. 9 UCLA closing out the night at 9:30 PM ET.
Live coverage of the afternoon games will air on ESPN, with ESPN2 broadcasting the two evening matchups.
For the first time in program history, Texas A&M is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA softball tournament, with the Aggies staving off four-time reigning champion Oklahoma for the honor in Sunday's 2025 bracket drop.
After adverse weather canceled their conference title game on Saturday, the Aggies and No. 2-seed Sooners became 2025 SEC tournament co-champions, leaving the NCAA selection committee to lean heavily on each team's strength of schedule in making their top-seed decision.
"What set apart Texas A&M is they have 19 Top 25 wins, which is number one in the country," said NCAA softball committee chair Kurt McGuffin on Sunday's ESPN2 broadcast, noting the Aggies' tough nonconference schedule.
Taking on a lighter nonconference slate than usual due to massive roster turnover following the 2023/24 season, Oklahoma relied heavily on their record in a stacked SEC, finishing one half-game ahead of A&M in regular-season play.
While the Sooners look to extend their championship streak, the Aggies will be hunting their third national title and first since 1987.
Standing in their way in the 64-team bracket are a record number of familiar foes, as the SEC boasts 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA competition — the most from any single conference in tournament history.
Even more, nine of the bracket's 16 seeded teams hail from the SEC, and a full seven of the Top 8.
Conference champs, at-large teams score NCAA bracket spots
SEC squads aren't the only teams looking to topple Texas A&M and Oklahoma, however, as conference champions and other elite squads learned their tournament fates on Selection Sunday.
No. 5 Florida State is the highest seeded non-SEC team, despite falling 2-1 to No. 11-seed Clemson in Saturday's ACC title game. Along with No. 14-seed Duke, the ACC will see nine teams in the 2025 tournament.
Behind 2024 National Player of the Year NiJaree Canady — the nation's top pitcher — Texas Tech leads a five-team contingent from the Big 12 after securing both their conference tournament trophy and the national No. 12-seed this weekend.
In the weekend's most upset-filled conference tournament, unseeded Michigan outlasted both No. 9-seed UCLA and No. 16-seed Oregon to score a second straight Big Ten tournament title on Saturday, becoming one of eight teams repping the conference in Sunday's bracket.
Notably, the Bruins — the winningest program in NCAA softball history with 12 titles — have not entered the tournament lower than a No. 6 seed since 2016.
How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball tournament
The road to the 2025 Women's College World Series begins with Regionals, in which each of the 16 seeded teams will host a four-team double-elimination mini-tournament this weekend.
With a minimum of 96 games — and a possibility of 112 — Regional play begins at 12 PM ET on Friday, with the 64-team field narrowing to 16 by Sunday night.
All games will air live across ESPN's networks.
College softball closed out regular-season play over the weekend, transitioning into a slate of cutthroat conference tournaments ahead of this year's 64-team NCAA Division I tournament.
Starting on Tuesday and running through Saturday, the 31 single-elimination softball conference tournaments will determine the champions who will automatically book their postseason tickets with their trophies.
The NCAA committee will award the remaining 33 bracket spots during this weekend's upcoming Selection Sunday show.
SEC dominance sets up blockbuster conference tournament
Thanks in part to recent conference realignment, the powerhouse SEC appears to have the college softball landscape on lock this year, with this week's tournament likely providing a sneak peek of the national tournament.
With the addition of newcomers No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 5 Texas — and led by current national No. 1 Texas A&M — seven of the Top 10 Division I teams hail from the SEC, including all of the Top 6.
Despite some growing pains — and seven conference losses — the defending champion Sooners will look to again lead the pack as they hunt a fifth straight Women’s College World Series title.
Joining the Sooners, Longhorns, and Aggies in pursuit of the SEC crown — and perhaps the national trophy, as well — are No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Florida, and No. 6 Arkansas.
How to watch the SEC softball conference tournament
With the conference's top teams earning byes through to later rounds, the SEC tournament begins when unranked Georgia takes on unranked Kentucky at 1 PM ET on Tuesday.
Later, No. 21 Ole Miss will battle unranked Missouri at 4 PM ET, before No. 16 Alabama wraps up the SEC's first round against unranked Auburn at 7 PM ET.
All three Tuesday games will air live on the SEC Network.
NCAA conference realignment drastically altered this year's college sports landscape, affecting volleyball, basketball, and, now, softball, as former titans lose ground while others rise to the occasion.
After years dominating the Big 12, four-time reigning NCAA softball champions Oklahoma are now riding the ups and downs of the stacked SEC.
The Sooners recorded a loss to unranked Missouri and fell twice to then-No. 10 Tennessee last month, before dropping two of three games to then-No. 22 Alabama this week.
With the now-No. 17 Crimson Tide's victories, Oklahoma fell two spots to No. 4 in Tuesday's ESPN/USA Softball rankings update.
Similarly, after adding a pair of weekend losses to then-No. 5 Tennessee alongside earlier stumbles against ranked SEC foes Florida and Mississippi State, former Big 12 standout No. 1 Texas took a tumble, with the 2024 runners-up Longhorns sliding to No. 3 this week.
While those wins earned the Vols a boost to No. 2, a dark horse SEC squad took over the sport's No. 1 spot on Tuesday, when a 12-game winning streak lifted the Texas A&M Aggies atop both the SEC table and the national rankings for the first time in program history.
SEC solidifies itself as top NCAA softball conference
The fall of NCAA softball's recent giants from the sport's elite spots isn't due to a decline in Oklahoma's or Texas's play, but simply a result of the intense level of competition and talent in the SEC.
The conference now lays claim to all of NCAA softball’s top four teams — plus seven of the Top 10.
With the college softball postseason looming next month — not to mention the eight-team Women's College World Series beginning on May 29th — the SEC is proving itself the conference to beat in the 2025 title hunt.
How to watch SEC softball this weekend
While No. 1 Texas A&M will take the weekend off after closing out a three-game series against Missouri early Friday afternoon, both No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Oklahoma will be battling in SEC series.
The Longhorns hope to sweep No. 9 LSU after claiming a 7-3 series-opening win on Thursday. Friday's first pitch between the pair is at 5:30 PM ET on SECN+, with Saturday's final game beginning at 12 PM ET on ESPN2.
The Sooners will kick off their own three-game slate against No. 15 Mississippi State at 5 PM ET on Friday, streaming live on SoonerSports. The pair will close out the series with a Sunday doubleheader beginning at 3 PM ET, with both games airing on SECN+.