The University of Florida was named the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship today when the NCAA Division I Softball Committee announced the 64-team field. The Gators, champions of the Southeastern Conference, are 55-3 and will play Florida A&M University, an automatic qualifier from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, May 15, in front of a home crowd in Gainesville.

Thirty conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 34 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and will play at campus sites this weekend.

Team pairings were determined by geographical proximity, with the exception that teams from the same conference were not paired during regional competition, when possible.

The SEC led all conferences with nine teams in the championship, while the Big 12 placed seven and the Big Ten and the Pacific-10 each placed six. California State University, Fresno, remains the only team to be selected to all 28 championships. Seven teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: Bradley University, James Madison University, the University of Kentucky, North Dakota State University, Radford University, Sacred Heart University and the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Only nine schools have been crowned the NCAA Division I softball champion since the tournament started in 1982, and all are in this year’s bracket.

The regional winners will advance to super regional competition for a best-of-three series May 21-24 at eight campus sites.The remaining eight teams will advance to the WCWS, an eight-team, double-elimination tournament. The championship final will be a best-of-three-series. The WCWS will be conducted May 28 to June 3 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

SELECTION PROCESS: The NCAA Division I Softball Committee selected teams from the following eight regions to participate in the championship: Central, East, Northeast, South, Mideast, Midwest, West and Pacific. Thirty conferences have been granted automatic qualification for the 2009 championship.

SEEDING, SITES:Teams were selected to the field of 64 teams. The top 16 teams were seeded in order, and the remaining teams were placed in regional brackets to create balanced competition and avoid conference match-ups, when possible.

CONFERENCES RECEIVING AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION:

America East – Boston U.

Atlantic Coast – Georgia Tech

Atlantic 10 – Massachusetts

Atlantic Sun – Campbell

Big East – Notre Dame

Big South – Radford

Big Ten – Michigan

Big 12 – Missouri

Big West – Cal Poly

Colonial Athletic – James Madison

ConferenceUSA – Tulsa

Horizon League – Cleveland St.

Ivy Group – Cornell

MetroAtlantic – Canisius

Mid-American – Miami (OH)

Mid-Eastern – Florida A&M

Missouri Valley – Bradley

Mountain West – BYU

Northeast – Sacred Heart

Ohio Valley – Tenn.-Martin

Pacific-10 – UCLA

Pacific Coast – Portland St.

Patriot League – Lehigh

Southeastern – Florida

Southern – Chattanooga

Southland – Texas St.

Summit – North Dakota St.

Sun Belt – La.-Lafayette

Southwestern – Mississippi Val.

Western Athletic – Fresno St.

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: 2008 Highlights: Arizona State University captured its first National Championship title defeating Texas A&M University, College Station 3-0 and 11-0 in championships series games one and two, respectively. Arizona State won the national title behind the pitching of Most Outstanding Player Katie Burkhart and all-tournament team honorees Kaitlin Cochran, Krista Donnenwirth, Lesley Rogers and Jackie Vasquez. Arizona State completed the series with a record of 6-0.