NCAA Chairperson explains decision between final Super Regional berth between No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 LSU

Home-field advantage in postseason play can make a major difference for teams. That’s why it was significant in the reveal of the bracket for the 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament that Stanford earned the No. 8 seed while LSU found themselves at No. 9.

UT-Martin AD Kurt McGuffin, a chairperson for the selection committe, spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe about several aspects following the network’s special on Sunday, including the placement of the Cardinal and the Tigers. In his explanation, he said that Stanford’s non-conference play along with LSU’s poor play down the stretch led to that decision between the two.

“We were consistently looking at 10 teams for those top eight seeds and we definitely know that eight and nine are very important,” noted McGuffin. “Stanford went out this year and upped their non-conference strength of schedule and had some really big wins – thirteen Top-25 wins. So we’re really excited to have Stanford in the eight spot.”

“With LSU, it was more how they ended their season,” McGuffin said. “They ended the season at 17-15 and 5-5 in their last 10. So really it was how they ended that season that caused us to move Stanford to that eight spot.”

Stanford sits at 43-13 overall while LSU stands at 40-15. However, upon a deeper dive into the resumé, McGuffin and the committee have a reasoning from that tracks.

The Cardinal played several contests against ranked opponents throughout the season, including each of their first three, several in the non-conference, and a handful during league play in the Pac-12. Most of those came in their conference schedule with nine against ranked opponents, two of which were against a Top-10 team in Washington, and one more in the Pac-12 Tournament against California. They also played five top-five games in early invitationals with several against top seeds and a pair of wins.

Now, to be clear, LSU also had several ranked opportunities and capitalized on many of them. The Tigers won 16 ranked matchups, which is why they spent much of the season in the Top-25 if not the Top-10. However, even with two of those coming in the SEC Tournament this weekend, they still closed the regular season with an 8-10 record and a 10-11 finish when you include their three games of postseason play.

While both teams will host in the opening weekend at Regionals, this choice will come into play in the next round in the Super Regionals. That’s when, assuming both teams were to advance, the Tigers would have to come out west to Smith Family Stadium in order to play against the Cardinal for a spot in the College World Series.

When you’re debating about teams of this caliber, it comes down to the split hairs. These ones went in favor of Stanford over LSU based on the clarification from McGuffin as part of the selection committee.