Eight teams reach the Women's College World Series to play for a national championship each spring, but only one can emerge with the title.
Unlike MLB, whose World Series consists of only two teams in a best-of-seven series, the WCWS — just like baseball's College World Series — is made of two distinct rounds of play. To be crowned national champions, this year's winner must traverse both before they can claim the ultimate prize of the sport.
No one has done a better job of navigating the bracket than Oklahoma in the 2020s, but other powerhouses are taking aim at the Sooners' dynasty.
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Here's everything you need to know about the Women's College World Series format, including rules, number of games played, bracket and more:
Women's College World Series format
The Women's World College Series features aspects of both regional (double-elimination) and super regional (best-of-three series) play. They are as follows:
Double-elimination
The WCWS starts with two four-team brackets, each engaging in a double-elimination portion of play. Competition in a given bracket starts with two games that produce two winners and two losers, each advancing to a winners and losers bracket, respectively.
The teams in the losers bracket will play each other, with the loser of that game being eliminated. The winner of the losers bracket game will then play the team that loses in the winners game from the opposing bracket. Whoever loses that game will be eliminated. At that point, only two teams per bracket remain (four total).
The team advancing from the losers bracket (which at that point will have two wins and one loss) will then play the team advancing out of the winners bracket (two wins and zero losses). The former team must beat the latter team twice to advance to the WCWS finals, while the latter only has to win once.
Whichever team wins — whether it be the losers bracket team twice or the winners bracket team once — will advance to the finals.
Finals
The two teams that advance from their respective brackets will face off in a best-of-three series, emulating the super regional round of play. The first team to win two games will be crowned the national champion.
How many games are in the Women's College World Series?
The Women's College World Series will feature at least 12 games in the double-elimination portion and could have as many as 14 games. The WCWS finals will have at least two games, with a potential third game if necessary.
All teams are guaranteed two games in the WCWS. Everything else is dependent on the outcomes of the games. For example, a team that sweeps the WCWS — double-elimination and finals combined — has only to win five games to be crowned national champions: three from the double-elimination round of play, plus two in the best-of-three finals.
A would-be national champion that loses one game in both the double-elimination and finals rounds must win eight games total: five from the former portion, and three in the latter.