They want TV games; ND & Wisconsin-prime time ESPN tonite

at 7pm. The winner will get the 4pm ESPN game tomorrow against #1 Oklahoma (assuming they beat UMBC Friday night-a 9:30 game on ESPN2)-all times ET.

All in all it's not a bad Seed to be #2, even though it's Norman. ND is the only one of the 5 ACC teams to make the tournament to not even get any votes in recent national rankings. The ACC top team is defending champ FSU, an overall 4 seed and nationally ranked #6 while Va Tech is ranked 23rd and a 2 seed. Both North Carolina and Louisville received votes in the April 22 ESPN/Softball USA national ranking and also got a 2 seed in their region. Wisconsin the 3 seed was actually ranked #25 in that ranking. Both Louisville & Wisconsin dropped off after their conference tourneys to be out of the final rankings. ND has a 33 RPI to Wisconsin's 35 and L'ville 36 so I think they tried to set up good TV games for the final NCAA seeding.

That said getting 5 ACC teams in the tourney is a big deal as I don't think it has ever happened before. I think having the defending NC helped. ND'sstreak is also still impressive even if we haven't ever made a superregional. I'd take our softball performance over ND baseball any day. The Big 10 and PAC12 were always strong in softball but the SEC has now taken over with all 13 teams making it in 2 years in a row. Big 10 got 6 teams in but only 1 top 8 seed like the ACC. The Pac 12 got 3 top 8 seeds out of their 5 qualifiers. The Big 12 only has Oklahoma top 8 although OkState and Texas got home regionals along with 6 SEC teams and the 3 Big 10 schools.

My feeling it would be great if not only does ND do well but the other ACC teams especially since three are playing a Big10 teams in their opener. It didn't start well with UNC losing 1-0 to Ohio State in their opener, but Va Tech is beating Illinois 6-2 with 1 inning left and Louisville is up 4-0 on SIU after 2.

I'm hoping for a good tourney and will be watching. Go Irish!