Michigan SB falls one spot to #2,

yikes, tied w/ IU and Iowa is a distant 2 games back. I think the chances are a bit better than 50-50, especially if Iowa still has to play IU.

guarded secret. I dont think the NSA can find the answer. Hutch was giving cryptic answers and a previous poster "knows someone close to the situation" and that person isnt saying much.

If I were a betting man, I would put her return at 50/50 in the regular season. As for the tourney? That is anyone's guess.

an endorsement for Hutch to head the National Security Agency.  She runs a tight ship.  I would be suprised if anything leaks out.

There are 64 teams that make the post season.  30 teams are from the various conference championships.  These are called "automatic bids"  The remaining 34 teams come from "at-large" bids as determined by the tournament Committee.

In my humble opinion, softball is the best and fairest way to crown a National Champion.  I know there are many who will disagree with me but the tournament is unique in that it features three tiers of competition and a loss doesn't necessarily eliminate a team from contention. In fact, throughout the entire tournament, a team can lose a total of four games and still be crowned champions.

During team selection the top sixteen teams are given "national seeds", which are used for organizing the brackets. The first tier, called "regionals", consists of 16 locations that include four teams competing in a double elimination bracket.  The regional containing overall #1 seed will be matched up with the regional containing the overall #16 seed, the #2 seed will be matched up with the #15 seed, and so on.

Once the "National Seedings" are set, the Tournament Committee fills in the remaining 3 teams from the remaining 48 teams.  Typically, these teams are selected by geography.  For example, last year we were a #2 National Seed.  We were paired in the super regional with #15 Tennessee.  The remaining 3 teams for our regional was Wright State, Illinois State, and ND.   Tennessee's regional had Ball State, Louisville and Virginia.

The winner of each regional moves on to the second tier, the "super regionals".  So the national polls are meaningless because the seedings do not occur until the automatic bids are determined.  I suppose the national rankings affect recruiting to some extent.

The super regionals are played at eight locations throughout the country and consist of the 16 surviving teams, with the higher seeded team usually hosting. Two teams are matched up at each location and they play a best-of-three series to determine who moves on to the Women's College World Series.

The final eight teams meet in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the Women's College World Series. This is the home to USA Softball. The WCWS is further divided into two sections. The first part resembles the regional tier, as teams are broken in two groups of four to play in a double-elimination bracket. The winners of each bracket then meet in a championship series, held at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, which is similar to the super regional tier in that it is a best-of-three series. The winner of the WCWS is crowned national champion.

So a team can have a bad game and come back and win the NC.  This is unique from football and basketball.  NCAA Hockey is being reviewed to possibly go to a double elimination tournament.  That decision is still TBD.

I can help.

There are 16 regionals.  The hosts are distributed geographically, because there is a "fewest flights" rule that the NCAA has to follow.  That is, they arrange the regionals so that the smallest number of teams possible have to travel more than 400 miles to their regional.  What this means for Michigan is that they are essentially guaranteed to host a regional even if they go 0-9 over their last 9 games, which won't even come close to happening.  There has to be a regional in the area (to accommodate us, Notre Dame, the MAC champion and Illinois State or Southern Illinois or DePaul).  We only need to finish higher than Notre Dame, and we're a host.  I think we have already wrapped that up.  We do need to be a top-16 seed to be 100 percent confident, though, but I still think we have that wrapped up as well.

There are only 8 super-regionals, and they are paired by seed.  The winner of the regional with the #1 seed plays the winner of the regional with the #16 seed.  All super-regionals are at the higher seed, so if a team is seeded in the top 8 and wins their regional, they are guaranteed to host a super-regional.  Michigan should be a top 8 seed as long as they finish 6-3 or so, which should be easily doable.  Of course, to host the super-regional, they need to win their regional, which might become a close proposition if they don't have Jordan Taylor.

Overall, I would say even without Jordan Taylor Michigan is 99 percent certain to host a regional and about 75 percent certain to host a super-regional. 

The top 8 National Seeds get to host regional and super regionals.  The next 8 national seeds get to host regional and the winner will travel to the super regional.

So I think you have a better than 50/50 chance to see us hosting a super regional.  I cant imagine us losing anymore games but I dont want to jinx us.  Even if we remain a #2 ranking in the polls, that should be good enough to warrant a top 8 national seed.  Also I believe we have an 90/10 chance of hosting a regional.  The only way we dont host a regional is if JT remains out and Spidey falls apart.  Spidey has been shaky but I cant imagine her falling apart and losing 2 or more games.  The remaining teams are weak.

Remember, we are the only team east of the Mississippi River to win a NC so we have some clout.  So if all things are equal, I would bet the tournament committee would give us the super regional over an SEC team.

typical.  There are many reasons why a team would not host a regional but remain the highest seed.  Obviously Hawaii would not host a regional because it would cost more money to fly 3 teams to Hawaii than 1 team (Hawaii) to California.  I will check but I would be surprised if Hawaii ever hosted a regional.

Last year only 4 teams (all with lower seeds) traveled.  It just makes more sense to make 1 team travel than 3 teams. especially with $4 gas.