It struck me as odd that Auburn received a higher seed than USF in this weekend’s NCAA softball Tallahassee regional.
Auburn finished tied for last place in the SEC, while USF won the American Athletic Conference. The Bulls have a better record (43-14-1) than the Tigers (32-22), who also finished 6-18 in conference play.
What gives?
The secret lies in the NCAA's almighty RPI rankings to select and seed tournament teams. Despite its dismal conference record, Auburn ranks 15th nationally in RPI while the Bulls are 34th.
Why is that, you ask?
Well, it’s the SEC, and you know what they say. The SEC, it just gets more.
The SEC occupies 15 of the first 39 spots in the RPI, and an astonishing 14 of its 15 teams received NCAA bids. If Missouri hadn’t finished with an overall losing record at 25-31, you can bet it would have been a clean sweep for that death star of a conference.
That’s crazy.
Either the SEC plays the best softball in human history or the RPI algorithm is wacked. I’m guessing it's the latter.
💃 DANCING ON TO TALLAHASSEE!!!#HornsUp 🤘 x #RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/MDrnhwUySp
— USF Softball (@USFSoftball) May 11, 2025
Yes, the first SEC team the Bulls played was Florida, which mercy-ruled them 8-0 early in the season.
However, USF also went toe-to-toe with Big Ten champ Michigan twice before falling 1-0 and 5-4. They also played SEC powerhouse Texas close before the Longhorns scored late for a 9-5 win.
The seeding really doesn’t matter. Even if the Bulls were the No. 2 seed in Tallahassee, they were still going to play Auburn as long as the selection committee was intent on putting the Tigers in that grouping. It's not the position so much as the principle of the thing.
Auburn has had a whiplash-inducing season. The Tigers started the year 20-1 before losing their first 13 SEC games. Alabama eliminated them in the first round of the SEC tournament, 2-1.
I asked long-time USF coach Ken Eriksen about how the RPI works.
“I’m not a big fan of it. Never have been. And I'm kind of disappointed,” he said. “I actually think there is corruption involved.”
Go on.
“The RPI system is based on the power of your opponent. The bottom four teams in our conference don't have great records outside of the conference, and the SEC does,” he said. “That doesn't necessarily mean that they're better, though. The RPI is really statistics, statistics, and lies.
“The worst thing that our committee members do is they don't do the eye test, like, Oh, hey, that team seems pretty good. Instead, they go by these statistical numbers. I'm surprised that a team like Purdue or a team like North Texas didn't make it over teams that were lower than them in RPI. And I don’t care what conference you’re in, if you’re not .500 in your conference, it’s really tough to be considered.”
Valid points.
For now, however, the field is set, and the Bulls are in it. They’ll be ready to go on Friday at noon. ESPNU will televise the game.
Top-seeded Florida State plays Robert Morris in the second game.
And the good news is that the RPI doesn’t matter once the game begins.