Recently, sports media has had a lot to say about schools switching conferences, the Pac-12 (temporarily) going out of business, and the subsequent rise of the Power 4 superconferences. But most of the talk has centered on football and basketball. The Southeastern Conference (SEC) got a record fourteen men’s basketball teams (out of sixteen–sorry LSU and South Carolina) into the 2025 NCAA Tournament. And it wasn’t just quantity, it was quality, too: Auburn and Florida made the Final Four as one-seeds, and Florida won the national championship.

In women’s basketball, the Big Ten earned a record twelve NCAA Tournament bids. Newcomers UCLA and USC secured one-seeds and UCLA advanced to the Final Four before falling to eventual national champion UConn.

However, the craziest consolidation of power due to conference realignment–and the one no one is talking about–might be SEC softball. In 2024, the final season before major power conference realignment, all thirteen SEC softball teams made the NCAA Division I Softball Championship field. Then, ahead of the 2025 season, the conference added the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas–the two teams that played for the national championship in 2024. That’s insane.

It might have been harder to win the SEC championship in 2025 than it will be to win the national championship. (Well, maybe not, considering two teams won the SEC tournament this year–the SEC cancelled the championship game due to inclement weather and named Oklahoma and Texas A&M co-champions).

The NCAA tournament bracket is a minefield of SEC teams. The conference placed an NCAA record fourteen teams in the tournament (out of fifteen–do better next year, Mizzou) teams, including the top three overall seeds: No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Oklahoma, and No. 3 Florida. The SEC also tied their own record with nine national seeds–the top sixteen teams, who host regionals–including seven of the top eight, who also host super regionals (if they win their regional).

Bold prediction: All eight teams in the 2025 Women’s College World Series will come from the SEC.

Yours in softball (this week),

Katie