Alabama Athletics
By Chris Marler
For as great as the NCAA Baseball tournament and Omaha are, there is something really special about what goes on in Oklahoma City this time of year.
Eight teams from across the country, but primarily the SEC, will descend upon OKC once again for the 2026 Women’s College World Series. Here’s what you need to know.
What to know
Five teams from the SEC made the tournament. That includes four teams ranked in the top seven national seeds. The fifth pulled off the upset of the century to get here, too.
No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Texas, No. 5 Arkansas and No. 7 Tennessee all expected to be here and made pretty quick work of their opponents (minus Texas) in the regionals and super regionals.
The odd (wo)man out of that group is Mississippi State who have the fewest wins of any team there (43) and the most losses (19) with eight more than the next closest team. Still, they got here by slaying the ultimate Goliath and ended a decade-long run of Oklahoma’s trips to the WCWS with an upset of the Sooners in Norman.
The Women’s College World Series is set 🏆
Catch all the action on the ESPN App 🍿 pic.twitter.com/XRcMGud8Va
— espnW (@espnW) May 24, 2026
Who’s the favorite
The easy answer here is Alabama. They’re the No. 1 Seed and finished this season 54-7. Texas however, is right there with them. The Longhorns beat Alabama to win the SEC Tournament less than a month ago, and are the No. 2 ranked team coming in.
Alabama’s strength is what they put in the circle. Their pitchers have put up a 0.21 ERA in the postseason. They’ve thrown a shutout 26 times, which is the most of any team in the country. They’ve outscored their opponents 31-1 since regional play started. All of that is great, but five of their seven total losses on the season came to three of the teams in the WCWS field.
Alabama is really good, but so are the other teams in the field. Expect them to be challenged much more in Oklahoma City than they have been in Tuscaloosa during the first five games of postseason play.
For the 16th time in program history, Alabama is heading to the Women’s College World Series#Team30 #RollTide pic.twitter.com/VDc7qKHLbp
— Alabama Softball (@AlabamaSB) May 24, 2026
Who you should be pulling for
This is the easiest answer imaginable. The answer is Mississippi State.
It’s not just because they’re the underdog but rather because of what they did to get here. It’s hard to explain how big of an upset their super regional win over Oklahoma was. I would say it’s like if Indiana won the national title, but Curt Cignetti ruined that. It’s basically like if the old Indiana of the past beat 2019 LSU.
Everyone doubted Mississippi State except themselves. This soundbyte below says it all.
“An underdog is still a freakin’ dog.” 🐶
Delainey Everett and @HailStateSB got that DOG in them 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KJH8LVvBsr
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 24, 2026
Biggest threat to the SEC
This one is tough because all three of the other teams are really good. The answer is Nebraska, though.
The Huskers are 51-6 on the season, and haven’t lost a game in over two months. Their starting pitcher Jordy Frahm is an incredible story. Frahm is from Nebraska, but chose Oklahoma out of high school. She transferred back to Nebraska this season and is 44-2 with a 0.99 ERA.
Picking a winner
Give me Texas. Texas handled Alabama with ease in the SEC Tournament Title game, 7-1. The bats are worrisome, but every team in OKC is flawed at the plate, as well.
Tennessee scored three or fewer runs in all of their ten losses. Alabama ranks 195th out of 308 Division I teams in strike out rate this season. So, everyone can be flawed at the plate.
Texas is the most experienced team in the field (besides UCLA), and they’re extremely talented to boot.
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