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. The eight teams of the WCWS play a double-elimination tournament until just two teams remain. These two teams compete in a best-of-three series to determine the Division I WCWS National Champion. Previous WCWS losses do not factor into the best-of-three championship series, and the first team to win two of three games is declared the National Champion.

Like the Men's College World Series in baseball, the WCWS initially divides the eight teams ranked one (the top seed) thru eight and are then divided into two brackets of four teams. The teams play their first-round match up as follows: 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5. Unique to the WCWS is that the loser of the first-round game^{[clarification needed]} on one side of the bracket crosses over to the loser's bracket on the other side. Suffering a second loss eliminates said team from the WCWS. Round number two will feature the four winners of round-one games against each other, with the highest remaining seed vs the lowest remaining undefeated seed. In the losers bracket, the four first round losers face each other, with the two winners advancing while the losers who suffer their second loss are eliminated from tourney play. Round three features the two losing teams from round two (winners bracket) vs round two-winners (from losers bracket) while the remaining two undefeated teams get a day of rest. Once round three is complete, there will now be four teams eliminated. The remaining four teams will then play each other in round four, with one team with one loss playing one team with no losses. If a team with a loss loses again, they are eliminated. If teams with no losses suffer a (first) loss, the remaining teams will then be realigned and forced to play one last time, with the winners advancing to the best-of-three championship series. If by chance one or both unbeaten teams win in round four, then that team (or both teams) advances to the best-of-three championship series. From there games are cut to one game per day over the next three days (weather pending). This feature allows any two of the eight WCWS teams to potentially comprise the final two, unlike the MCWS, whose two halves remain separate until the championship series.^[1]

The WCWS takes place at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. From 1969 to 1981, the women's collegiate softball championship was also known as the Women's College World Series and was promoted as such.^[2] During 1969–1979, the series was played in Omaha, after which the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) held the series in 1980–1982 in Norman, Oklahoma. There were two competing World Series tournaments in 1982. The NCAA held its first six Division I tournaments in Omaha in 1982–1987, followed by Sunnyvale, California, in 1988–1989. The event has been held in Oklahoma City every year since then, except for 1996, when it was held at the softball venue for the '96 Olympic Games in Columbus, Georgia.

Softball was one of twelve women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981–82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. The AIAW continued to conduct its established championship program in the same twelve (and other) sports. The 1982 softball championship tournaments of both the AIAW and the NCAA were called "Women's College World Series". However, after a year of dual women's championships, the NCAA won out over the AIAW.^[3]