Why UNC softball was snubbed from 2026 NCAA tournament bracket selection originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The North Carolina Tar Heels won nearly two-thirds of their softball games in the 2026 NCAA regular season.
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That wasn’t enough to get them into the NCAA tournament bracket that was selected on Sunday.
Some viewed UNC as a snub, and the team’s official account used three broken heart emojis to sum up the mood:
There’ll never be as much dialogue here as there would be about a basketball or college football selection, but it’s still an interesting one.
UNC finished the year 32-19, although just 9-15 in the ACC.
Why didn’t UNC make NCAA softball tourney?
The reality is that the RPI didn’t quite work in North Carolina’s favor.
It’s a 64-team tournament, with 31 automatic bids based on conference championships and 33 at-large bids.
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UNC had the 43rd-best RPI. It put them just on the outside looking in when you consider those auto bids, as well.
North Carolina may have given itself a chance by beating ranked Clemson in the first round of the ACC tourney, but the Tar Heels fell to ranked Duke in the next round. Maybe one more win over a ranked team would’ve made the difference.
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