NCAA softball committee chair explains why South Carolina earned No. 8 seed over UCLA

The NCAA Softball Tournament field was announced Sunday, leading to some debate among fans about the seeding. One such case occurred with South Carolina earning the No. 8 overall seed, meaning it would be the last team guaranteed to host a Super Regional if it wins its Regional.

UCLA came in right behind the Gamecocks to be awarded the No. 9 overall seed. That means that should both teams advance, the Bruins would have to travel to Columbia for the Super Regional series against South Carolina.

Softball committee chair Kurt McGuffin joined ESPN2 for an interview with Holly Rowe moments after the field was announced. He explained the decision to rank the Gamecocks ahead of UCLA, pointing to their strength of schedule.

“When you look at South Carolina, they had 17 top 25 wins,” he said. “That was key in that area. They went and really challenged themselves all year. Six of those top 25 wins were out of conference. So we like to see teams that nonconference and the conference schedule is very challenging.”

UCLA finished with a 49-10 record compared to 40-15 for South Carolina. Additionally, the Bruins also rank as the No. 5 team in the RPI compared to No. 9 for the Gamecocks.

UCLA advanced to the Big Ten Championship, where it lost against Michigan. South Carolina made it to the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament before losing to Texas A&M, which went on to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

This is the first top eight seed in history for South Carolina, which will now move on to play Elon in the opening game of Regional play at 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday. UCLA gets a matchup with UC Santa Barbara at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

The Regional contests follow a double elimination format with a four-team field. Joining Elon and South Carolina in Columbia are North Florida and Virginia. San Diego State and Arizona State are the other two teams in the Bruins’ Regional.

This is the 25th all-time NCAA Tournament bid for South Carolina and the 40th for UCLA, which also boasts 12 national titles in its history. Both teams will look to take care of business and then meet each other in the Super Regional, where UCLA would get a chance to show why it deserved to be ranked ahead. The Bruins went 13-3 in road contests this season.