The 2016 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 20 through June 8, 2016 as the final part of the 2016 NCAA Division I softball season. The 64

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

college softball teams were to be selected out of an eligible 293 teams on May 15, 2016. Thirty-two teams were awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conference, and thirty-two teams were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I softball selection committee. The tournament culminated with eight teams playing in the 2016

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

ASA Hall of Fame Stadium OGE Energy Field at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium is a softball-specific ballpark located inside the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It seats 13,000 and is the site of the annual Women's Colleg ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

in which the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Ru ...

were crowned the champions.

Automatic bids

The Big 12, Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12, and West Coast Conference bids were awarded to the regular season champion. All other conferences have the automatic bid go to the conference tournament winner.

National seeds

16 National Seeds were announced on the Selection Show Sunday, May 15 at 10 p.m. EDT on ESPNU. The 16 national seeds hosted the Regionals. Teams in italics advanced to Super Regionals. Teams in bold advanced to

. 1. ' (53–5)
2. (46–5)
3.

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

(47–7)
4. Auburn (49–9)
5. ' (44–8)
6.

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

(46–12)
7. ' (46–4)
8. (48–8) 9. (43–12)
10. (45–15)
11. ' (36–13)
12. (35–13–1)
13. (41–14)
14. '' Louisiana–Lafayette'' (43–7)
15. ' (39–14)
16. (40–17)

Regionals and Super Regionals

The Regionals took place May 19–22. The Columbia regional took place May 19–21 because of BYU's no Sunday-play policy. All other regionals occurred May 20–22. The Super Regionals took place from May 26–29.

Gainesville Super Regional

Tallahassee Super Regional

Eugene Super Regional

Auburn Super Regional

Norman Super Regional

Tuscaloosa Super Regional

Harrisonburg Super Regional

Ann Arbor Super Regional

Women's College World Series

The Women's College World Series was held June 2 through June 8, 2016, in Oklahoma City.

Participants

Bracket

Championship game

Record by conference

The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, CS, and NC respectively stand for the Regional Finals, Super Regionals, College World Series Teams, National Semi-Finals, Championship Series, and National Champion.

Media coverage

Radio

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

provided nationwide radio coverage of the championship series. It was streamed online at westwoodsports.com and through

TuneIn TuneIn is a global audio streaming service delivering live news, radio, sports, music, and podcasts to over 75 million monthly active users. TuneIn is operated by the company TuneIn Inc. which is based in San Francisco, California. The compan ...

Kevin Kugler Kevin Kugler is an American sportscaster who primarily works in radio broadcasting. Kugler is currently employed by Westwood One as its lead college basketball voice as well as one of its Sunday NFL voices, and by the Big Ten Network as a play-by- ...

and Leah Amico provided the call for Westwood One.

Television

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

holds exclusive rights to the tournament. They aired games across ESPN,

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

, and ESPNU. Select regionals and super-regionals were broadcast on additional ESPN stations like

SEC Network The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds ...

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ...

, SEC Network Plus, and

Longhorn Network Longhorn Network (LHN) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and is operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company a ...

. Any regionals not picked up by ESPN were streamed online by the host institution or broadcast by their television partners.

Broadcast assignments

''Regionals'' *Columbia:

Pam Ward Pam Ward is an on-air personality for the cable sports television network ESPN, serving as one of the play-by-play announcers for ESPN's coverage of the 2012 and 2013 Women's College World Series of Softball. She is a graduate of the University of ...

& Cheri Kempf *Gainesville:

Trey Bender Trey Bender is a sportscaster for ESPNU, ESPN Plus, American Sports Network, and a part-time host for Yahoo! Sports Radio. Broadcasting biography Bender calls football, basketball, baseball, and swimming for ESPNU, ESPN Plus, ESPN3, and NBC ...

Jennie Ritter Jennifer Darlene Ritter (born June 1, 1984) is an American, former collegiate All-American, retired softball pitcher and current sports commentator. She played college softball and was a starting pitcher for the Michigan Wolverines softball f ...

*Tallahassee:

Melissa Lee Melissa Ji-Yun Lee ( ko, 이지연; born 1966) is a New Zealand politician. She was elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP for the National Party in the 2008 election. , she is the National Party's spokesperson for broadcasting, ...

& Leah Ross *Tuscaloosa:

Cara Capuano Cara Capuano is an American sports anchor for ESPNU. Before joining ESPNU in 2008, she was a former sports reporter for FSN. She joined Fox Sports Northwest in August 2004, as a reporter and anchor for the ''Northwest Sports Report'' and the ' ...

& Leah Amico *Knoxville:

Beth Mowins Elizabeth Mowins (born May 26, 1967) is an American play-by-play announcer and sports journalist for ESPN, CBS, and Marquee Sports Network. She typically calls women's college sports, and became the second woman to call nationally televised c ...

& Michele Smith *Auburn: Tiffany Greene & Jenny Dalton-Hill *Lafayette: Adam Amin &

Amanda Scarborough Amanda Marie Scarborough (born May 10, 1986) is an American sports broadcaster for ESPN and former softball player. Playing college softball at Texas A&M, Scarborough was a two-time NFCA All-American, the 2005 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, ...

''(ESPN Nets)''
Tyler Denning &

Megan Willis Megan is a Welsh feminine given name, originally a diminutive form of Margaret. Margaret is from the Greek μαργαρίτης (''margarítēs''), Latin ''margarīta'', "pearl". Megan is one of the most popular Welsh-language names for women in W ...

''(LHN)'' *Norman: Jenn Hildreth & Carol Bruggeman *Eugene: Mark Neely &

Danielle Lawrie Danielle Elaine Lawrie (born April 11, 1987) is a Canadian, former collegiate All-American, medal-winning Olympian, professional All-Star softball pitcher and current sports commentator. Lawrie played college softball at Washington, in which sh ...

*Athens: Kaleb Frady & Natalie Kerns *Baton Rouge: Lyn Rollins &

Yvette Girouard Yvette Marie Girouard (born 1954) is an American retired softball coach who was head coach at Southwestern Louisiana (later Louisiana) from 1981 to 2000 and LSU from 2001 to 2011. On March 15, 2019 at the Louisiana softball game vs. the Troy Tr ...

*Lexington: Dave Baker & Dorian Craft (Fri) or

Ginny Carroll Ginny or Ginnie is an English feminine given name or diminutive, frequently of Virginia. People Virginia *Ginny Arnell (born 1942), American singer and songwriter born Virginia Mazarro * Ginny Blackmore (born 1986), New Zealand singer and songwrit ...

(Sat/Sun) *Ann Arbor:

Lisa Byington Lisa Byington (born May 18, 1976) is a play-by-play announcer, studio host, and feature producer/reporter. She has broadcast games for Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports, Fox Sports 1, FS1, Big Ten Network, CBS, Turner Sports, Pac-12 Networ ...

& Stacey Phillips ''( BTN)'' *Harrisonburg: Curt Dudley & Kim Fucci ''(Madizone HD SN)'' *Seattle: Mike Brown ''(P12 WASH)'' *Los Angeles- No commentary ''(P12 UCLA)'' ''Super Regionals'' *Gainesville: Trey Bender & Jennie Ritter *Norman: Adam Amin & Amanda Scarborough *Harrisonburg: Jenn Hildreth & Carol Bruggeman *Tallahassee: Cara Capuano & Leah Amico *Tuscaloosa: Beth Mowins, Michele Smith, &

Jessica Mendoza Jessica Ofelia Mendoza (born November 11, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former softball player. Currently, she serves as a color commentator and analyst for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage on ...

*Ann Arbor: Pam Ward & Cheri Kempf *Auburn: Tiffany Greene & Jenny Dalton-Hill *Eugene: Mark Neely & Danielle Lawrie ''Women's College World Series'' *Adam Amin, Amanda Scarborough, &

Laura Rutledge Laura Rutledge ( née McKeeman; born October 2, 1988) is a reporter and host for ESPN and the SEC Network. She is an American beauty pageant titleholder from St. Petersburg, Florida, who was named Miss Florida 2012. Biography She won the title o ...

(afternoons) *Beth Mowins, Jessica Mendoza, Michele Smith, &

Holly Rowe Holly Rowe (born June 16, 1966) is an American sports telecaster currently working for the sports television network ESPN. Rowe is best known as a sideline reporter for college football games which are telecast on ESPN. Rowe made Utah Jazz team ...

(evenings & championship series)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2016 NCAA Division I softball tournament NCAA Division I softball tournament

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...