College softball tournament begins

One of my favorite non-traditional sporting events of the year is the NCAA softball tournament. I got hooked on it back when I covered softball at the Daily Bruin. The games are close and intense, they’re typically over quickly (about two hours), and there’s usually some notable upsets.

For most teams, the regionals start today. Games from UCLA’s, Alabama’s and Tennessee’s regional will be televised all weekend (mostly on ESPNU but some games on ESPN2 also). ESPN has a handy schedule, and ESPN’s Graham Hays has a couple of good previews of the tournament. A couple of the regionals actually started on Thursday, with Alabama, Jacksonville State, BYU and Georgia all winning.

For those of you who don’t know, here’s the basic tournament format:

This weekend: Regionals (16 sites with four teams each, double-elimination format)
Memorial Day weekend: Super Regionals (best-of-three series at eight different sites)
Women’s College World Series: starts May 29, double-elimination until championship, which is best-of-three series.