Oklahoma City is the mecca of college softball.
But Clearwater, Florida, has become a hotspot.
The suburb of Tampa is home to what has become the sports’s premier early-season tournament, and this past weekend, the Clearwater Invitational was a non-stop churn of great matchups and splendid games. There were four top-10 teams in Florida State, UCLA, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State (or at least they were in the top 10 when the tournament started) in addition to the likes of Missouri, Kentucky, Clemson and UCF.
The team that made the most noise, though, was Auburn. The Tigers rolled up wins against Clemson, Virginia, UCF, Charlotte and Liberty, but they scored their biggest win against Oklahoma State, a narrow 2-1 victory on Saturday.
Auburn, which hasn’t advanced out of regionals since 2017 and hasn’t hosted a regional since that same year, is one of only nine remaining undefeated teams from Power Four conferences.
Auburn makes its debut in The Oklahoman’s College Softball Super 16 this week.
Here’s a look at this week’s poll:
More: OU softball pitcher Sam Landry throws perfect game in Sooners’ run-rule win over Baylor
Super 16 college softball power rankings
Team (Record), Points (First-place votes)
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1. Texas (11-0), 144 (9)
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2. Oklahoma (10-0), 133
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3. Florida (13-1), 117
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4. Florida State (8-1), 108
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5. Tennessee (10-1), 100
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6T. LSU (10-0), 99
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6T. UCLA (9-1), 99
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8. Texas A&M (10-1), 76
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9. Arizona (10-1), 65
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10. Arkansas (10-0), 56
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11. Oklahoma State (5-4), 40
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12T. Georgia (9-0), 38
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12T. Texas Tech (8-3), 38
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14. Duke (8-3), 35
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15. Nebraska (8-2), 23
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16. Auburn (11-0), 19
Receiving votes: Mississippi State (9-1) 16, San Diego State (8-2) 10, Virginia Tech (8-2) 5, Missouri (6-5) 2, Oregon (10-1) 1
Voters: Ryan Aber, The Oklahoman; Jenni Carlson, The Oklahoman; Cora Hall, Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel; Eric Lopez, In The Circle; Justin McLeod, D1Softball.com; Anna Snyder, Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News; Brady Vernon, Softball America; Kirk Walker, UCLA director of softball administration; Scott Wright, The Oklahoman.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Super 16 college softball rankings: Auburn enters poll after hot start
