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College softball
College softball
	A NCAA Division III softball game in 2022
Governing body	List NCAA; NAIA; NCCAA; NJCAA; USCAA; CCCAA; ACCA; ;
First played	1910; 115 years ago
Club competitions
	NCAA Div III; NAIA Championship;

College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is normally played by men.

As with other intercollegiate sports, most college softball in the United States is played under the auspices of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Over 600 NCAA member colleges are sponsors of women's softball programs. The women's softball championships are held in Division I, Division II, and Division III. The NCAA writes the rules of play, while each sanctioning body supervises season-ending tournaments.

The final rounds of the NCAA tournaments are known as the Women's College World Series (WCWS); one is held on each of the three levels of competition sanctioned by the NCAA. The Division I Women's College World Series is held annually in June at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City near the site of the National Softball Hall of Fame.

History

Softball was sanctioned at collegiate level in 1910.^[2]^[1] The first first-ever WCWS was held in 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska, sponsored by the Amateur Softball Association and the Division of Girls' and Women's Sports.^[3]^[4] The first under NCAA auspices was held in 1982.^[5] The tournament now starts with 64 teams from 16 different regions that compete in a double-elimination regional round. The sixteen winners then enter a 'super regional', usually held at the higher seed's home ground, for a best-of-three series. The eight winners then enter a modified double-elimination tournament to determine which team is the national champion. Instead of being a 'true' double-elimination tournament, the tournament is split up so there are two brackets, though the losers switch brackets. The winners of each of the brackets move onto a best-of-three championship. The tournament is largely dominated by Pac-12 Conference teams, who have combined to win 21 of the 27 NCAA Division I championships through 2008, including 10 wins from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and 8 from the University of Arizona. Lately the University of Oklahoma has dominated NCAA softball, winning 6 of the past 8 championships through 2024.

In 2004 the International Softball Federation (ISF) held the first World University Softball Championship just two months after the 2004 Olympic competition.^[6] It was an eight country championship, with Team USA defeating Chinese Taipei for the gold medal.^[7] In 2006 the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) held the second World University Softball Championship in Taiwan,^[7] and in 2007 softball was added to the World University Games of FISU.^[6]^[8]

Junior College Softball

The National Junior College Athletic Association was founded on May 14, 1938,^[9] and includes competition among junior college softball programs. Within the NJCAA there are Divisions I, II, and III, which are further divided into regions and conferences. At the Division I level, there are 19 regions; at the Division II level, 18 regions; and at the Division III level, 9 regions. Every year at the end of the regional championships, national tournaments are conducted. The Division I tournament is held in St. George, Utah; the Division II tournament, in Clinton, Mississippi; and the Division III tournament, in Rochester, Minnesota.

References

^ ^a ^b The History of Softball on St. Bonaventure University Archives
^ ^a ^b College Softball: A Brief History one of the NCAA's Female-Only Sports by Alexis Peltzer on GMTM.com]
^ Mary L. Littlewood (1998). Women's Fastpitch Softball - The Path to the Gold, An Historical Look at Women's Fastpitch in the United States (first ed.). National Fastpitch Coaches Association, Columbia, Missouri. pp. 145, 208. ISBN 0-9664310-0-6.
^ Plummer, William; Floyd, Larry C. (2013). A Series Of Their Own: History Of The Women's College World Series. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States: Turnkey Communications Inc. ISBN 978-0-9893007-0-4.
^ Softball - DI Championship History on NCAA.com
^ ^a ^b "International Softball Federation - ISF Timeline". Archived from the original on 2010-01-10. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
^ ^a ^b "Softball 2006". Archived from the original on 2009-06-18. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
^ "MA News: The Chinese Taipei Softball Team Sets Its Sight on the 2007 Bangkok Universiade". June 1, 2007. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
^ "History of the NJCAA". NJCAA. Retrieved 2018-05-06.