Alabama Softball Earns Top-16 Seed, Will Host Regional

The Crimson Tide found out its NCAA Tournament seeding and opponents on Sunday night.

Fans cheer as Crimson Tide players rush the field after Alabama defeated Kentucky 4-1 to advance to / Gary Cosby Jr. via Imagn Content

It has been an up-and-down season for Alabama softball, but the Crimson Tide is a top-16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Alabama softball was announced as the No. 14 overall seed and will host USC Upstate (30-21), Southeastern Louisiana (45-13) and Clemson (34-17) in Tuscaloosa at Rhoads Stadium this weekend, May 17-19.

The Crimson Tide will open play on Friday against USC Upstate at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN+. The regional is a double-elimination format. Southeastern Louisiana and Clemson will also face each other on Friday at 1 p.m. as the first game of the regional.

Alabama finished the regular season with a 33-17 (10-14 SEC) record and first-round loss in the SEC Tournament to LSU. Alabama was below .500 in SEC play for the first time in program history, losing seven of its eight series. However, the Tide finished with an RPI of 15 and no bad losses on its resume.

The top-16 seeds each get to host a regional, and the top-eight teams will host a super regional if they advance. This means Alabama would face No. 3 Tennessee if both teams won their regionals. And the winners of the eight super regionals will reach the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. Alabama has 14 WCWS appearances, including last season.

All 13 current SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament with eight of the top-16 seeds coming from the conference. The top-two overall seeds (Texas and Oklahoma) will join the SEC next season.

Alabama and Tennessee remain the only two programs to be a national seed every season since the format was first introduced in 2005.

Top-16 National Seeds

1. Texas (47-7)

2. Oklahoma (49-6)

3. Tennessee (40-10)

4. Florida (46-12)

5. Oklahoma State (44-10)

6. UCLA (37-10)

7. Missouri (43-15)

8. Stanford (43-13)

9. LSU (40-15)

10. Duke (47-6)

11. Georgia (39-16)

12. Arkansas (36-16)

13. Louisiana (42-17)

14. Alabama (33-17)

15. Florida State (43-14)

16. Texas A&M (40-13)

This story will be updated.