Final Regional Projections Has UL Softball Staying In-State
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns are projected to be part of an in-state regional featuring four college softball teams from three different states for the 2021 NCAA Regionals.
Earlier this week, Hayden King of College Sports Madness projected Louisiana to play in the Baton Rouge Regional, along with LSU, Villanova, and Texas Southern.
Yes, a lot can still happen in the respective conference tournaments this week, but we are indeed coming down the home stretch, and these are the final projections before the field of 64 is announced on Sunday night.
The Cajuns are currently 40-10, overall, and 20-3 in Sun Belt Conference play.
Louisiana returns to action this week (Wednesday-Saturday) when they travel to Troy, Alabama to take part in the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Postseason Championship.
The projection by College Sports Madness has LSU as the top seed, followed by Louisiana, Villanova, and Texas Southern.
Officially, there are no 2-4 seeds in the NCAA Regionals. The NCAA only recognizes the top seed. But we can all easily figure it out.
The Baton Rouge Regional is projected as the #9 Regional in the field.
Louisiana will be looking to qualify for their 23rd-consecutive NCAA Regional appearance, including their 30th in the last 31 years, excluding 2020, when there was no postseason.
The only year since 1990 in which Louisiana failed to appear in a regional was 1998.
Louisiana has had a lot of success in postseason play, advancing to Super Regional play for 5-straight years, from 2012-2016, prior to playing on Championship Sunday in the last two Regionals.
Oklahoma is the top seed in the projections, followed by UCLA, Florida, Alabama, Florida St., Arkansas, Oklahoma St., and Texas.
Texas St. and Troy, also from the Sun Belt Conference, are both projected to make the field of 64.
Last season, Louisiana was 18-6, ranked in everyone's top ten, and number one in the RPI poll when the season was shut down in mid-March due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
We'll never know how things would have played out, but it's almost certain UL would have hosted a regional for the first time since 2016, and very likely would have hosted a Super Regional for the first time since 2014.
Louisiana is one of only 9 programs to appear in an NCAA Regional every year since 2000, joining Alabama, Arizona, Florida St., Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, UCLA, and Washington.
You can view the complete projections, here.