How does WCWS work? Explaining double-elimination format for NCAA softball tournament
The college softball world has shifted its entire focus to Oklahoma City for the 2025 Women's College World Series.
Back for the ninth consecutive year is the sport's biggest titan, No. 2 Oklahoma. Patty Gasso's Sooners, who are led by Sam Landry and Kasidi Pickering, are looking to continue their dominance at Devon Park by winning their fifth consecutive (and ninth overall) national championship.
The SEC also has a strong showing in Oklahoma City, as the conference owns five of the eight spots, largely due to the additions of Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 over the offseason. The Big 12 still is represented in Oklahoma City, though, as NiJaree Canady pitched Texas Tech to the WCWS for the first time in program history.
Speaking of first-time appearances, Ole Miss is making its first trip to the WCWS as well. The Rebels upset back-to-back national seeds No. 13 Arizona and No. 4 Arkansas in the Tucson Regional and Fayetteville Super Regional, respectively.
WCWS play opens up on Thursday, May 29 at noon ET with an SEC-on-SEC battle between Florida and Texas. But as the WCWS takes place over the next week, fans who watch the action unfold for the first time may wonder how the championship tournament format actually works.
Here's what you need to know on the format of the Women's College World Series:
How many teams make the WCWS?
The Women's College World Series is comprised of the final eight remaining teams in the 64-team NCAA softball tournament bracket. The eight teams that compete in the WCWS have advanced to Oklahoma City by winning their respective regional and super regional series.
Of the eight teams that have made the 2025 Women's College World Series, five of them hail from the SEC.
How does the Women's College World Series work? Explaining WCWS format
Similarly to the College World Series, the Women's College World Series begins with a double-elimination style format comprised of two four-team brackets. It's similar to how the regional round of the NCAA Tournament operates, where four teams compete against each other until a winner is crowned from that respective bracket.
Each team begins WCWS play with a 0-0 record and is guaranteed to play at least two games in Oklahoma City. Those who lose their opening WCWS game will fall to 0-1 and drop into the "elimination bracket," where they will play to keep their stay alive by winning an elimination game. Those who win their opening WCWS games will move to 1-0 and continue further in the "winner's bracket."
The team that drops their first "elimination bracket" game will drop to 0-2 and be eliminated from the chase for a national championship.
But where the format of the WCWS differs from the CWS and gets a bit complicated is what happens to the loser of the second "winner's bracket" game. The loser of this game not only drops to 1-1 in WCWS play and is put into a survive-and-advance elimination game, but they have to play that elimination game on the opposite side of the bracket.
From there, that team will play the winner of that bracket's "elimination bracket" game. The team that loses that game is eliminated from the WCWS, while the winner advances back into the "winner's bracket" to play in the semifinals with a 2-1 record. To make the WCWS championship, that team will need two wins against the representative of the "winner's bracket."
How does the Women's College World Series championship work?
The Women's College World Series championship series is a best-of-three series, meaning a team needs to win two games to be crowned the national champion. A team that drops Game 1 of the WCWS championship series can still win the national championship by winning Game 2 and forcing the "if necessary" Game 3.
WCWS bracket 2025
Bracket 1 for the 2025 Women's College World Series is loaded and consists of four national seeds in No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Texas and No. 7 Tennessee. Bracket 2 for the WCWS consists of No. 9 UCLA, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 16 Oregon and non-seeded Ole Miss.
Here's a full breakdown of the two WCWS brackets:
Parentheses represent team's seeding
Bracket 1:
- (2) Oklahoma vs. (7) Tennessee
- (3) Florida vs. (6) Texas
Bracket 2:
- (9) UCLA vs. (16) Oregon
- (12) Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss
WCWS schedule 2025
Here's a full breakdown of the 2025 Women's College World Series, including available start times and TV channel information at the time of this writing:
All times Eastern
Thursday, May 29
- Game 1: No. 3 Florida vs. No. 6 Texas | noon | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 2: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 7 Tennessee | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 3: Ole Miss vs. No. 12 Texas Tech | 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
- Game 4: No. 16 Oregon vs. No. 9 UCLA | 9:30 p.m. ESPN2 (Fubo)
Friday, May 30
- Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser | 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
- Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
Saturday, May 31
- Game 7: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner 3 p.m. | ABC (Fubo)
- Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner 7 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
Sunday, June 1
- Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 8 loser 3 p.m. | ABC (Fubo)
- Game 10: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 loser 7 p.m. | ESPNU (Fubo)
Monday, June 2
- Game 11: Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner | noon | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 12 (If Necessary): Game 7 winner vs. Game 9 winner | 2:30 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
- Game 13: Game 8 winner vs. Game 10 winner | 7 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
- Game 14 (If Cecessary): Game 8 winner vs. Game 10 winner | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN2 (Fubo)
WCWS championship series schedule 2025
Wednesday, June 4
- WCWS championship Game 1: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner | 8 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
Thursday, June 5
- WCWS championship Game 2: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner | 8 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)
Friday, June 6
- WCWS championship Game 3 (If Necessary): Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner | 8 p.m. | ESPN (Fubo)