INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For the second-straight year and third time in the last four years, the SCAC will have two softball teams competing in the national championship as regular season and tournament champion Texas Lutheran University and University of St. Thomas were among the 64 teams selected for the 2026 NCAA Division III Softball Championship. NCAA Release | Interactive Bracket
Texas Lutheran (38-4), which is scheduled to host regional action for the first time since 2022, is making its 12th-straight NCAA appearance, highlighted by five trips to the College World Series in the last seven seasons, the 2019 National Championship and runner-up finish at the 2021 Championship.
TLU will open NCAA play against Penn St.-Behrend (28-11) that earned the automatic bid out of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) by virtue of an 8-7 win over Penn State Altoona in the conference championship. It will mark the 11th NCAA appearance all-time for the Lions and the third since 2022. This will mark just the second meeting all-time between the SCAC and the AMCC with the only previous other meeting coming back in 2011 with the SCAC holding a 1-0 all-time record. The winner of the Bulldogs and the Lions will face the winner of Huntingdon (31-10) and Trinity (30-11-1) in the winner’s bracket semifinal. The Hawks and the Tigers both earned Pool-C at-large bids into this year’s championship.
The Bulldogs enter the NCAA Tournament having won eighth-straight contests, including sweeping through the SCAC Tournament to claim the program’s 10th Tournament Title and are tied for the third most wins (38) in Division III this year.
St. Thomas (30-10) will travel to Marshall, Texas to compete in a four-team double elimination pod hosted by East Texas Baptist University. This season marked St. Thomas' third bid into the NCAA Tournament in the last four years after securing the program’s first-ever Pool-C at-large bid.
St. Thomas will begin this year’s postseason journey with an opening round matchup against Rowan University (36-8), who earned the New Jersey Athletic Conference’s (NJAC) AQ bid. It marks the third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance for Rowan and 14th overall. The SCAC is 0-1 all-time versus teams out of the NJAC in NCAA Tournament action. The winner of the UST and Rowan will take on the winner of host ETBU (37-4) and Denison (20-19) in the winner’s bracket semifinal.
St. Thomas is 3-4 in its previous two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
The regional round will be held May 14-16. Sixteen sites will host four teams at each regional site. The team advancing from each regional will compete in the super regional round May 21 and 22 hosted by eight institutions. The finals, hosted by the City of Salem and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, will be held May 28-June 3 at Moyer Sports Complex in Salem, Virginia. All rounds will use a double-elimination format.
Forty-two conferences received an automatic qualification into the championship. The 22 remaining teams were selected on an at-large basis using the NCAA Power Index (NPI).
