As #7 Clemson begins their postseason in the ACC Softball Championship on Thursday, the team is focused on the matchup with sixth-seeded North Carolina. However, with the team comfortably in the NCAA Tournament field, most fans are looking ahead to regional play. Despite their lofty ranking and boasting the fifth-most wins in the country, the Tigers are squarely on the hosting bubble.
D1Softball currently does not have Clemson hosting a regional, but instead have them listed as the first host “out” of the 16 teams. The most recent projections on May 9th have Tigers traveling to tenth-seeded Alabama for the second time in three years. The other teams in the regional are currently projected to be Charlotte and Canisius. The Tuscaloosa Regional is matched up with the Baton Rouge Regional in a Super Regional matchup.
Historically, the NCAA Softball Committee has followed relatively close to the RPI rankings when determining hosts. Again, this places Clemson squarely on the bubble. The official NCAA RPI rankings and Boyds World ISR have the Tigers at #16 while the D1Softball RPI is listed at #14. In the chart below, we take a look at other teams in the running to host a regional.
| Team | Record | NCAA RPI | Boyds World ISR | D1Softball RPI |
| #13 Arkansas | 38-16 (14-10) | 14 | 14 | 15 |
| #14 Georgia | 39-12 (16-7) | 15 | 15 | 16 |
| #15 Louisiana | 43-13 (22-2) | 9 | 17 | 9 |
| #16 Baylor | 39-15 (8-10) | 17 | 19 | 17 |
| Clemson | 45-18 (18-6) | 16 | 16 | 14 |
| Oregon | 35-14 (14-10) | 18 | 11 | 18 |
| Auburn | 39-16 (15-9) | 21 | 21 | 22 |
| Florida | 35-19 (11-13) | 22 | 26 | 21 |
D1Softball also provides a more comprehensive breakdown of their RPI, listed below:
| Team | SOS | NC SOS | 1-25 | 26-50 | 51-100 | 101-200 | 200+ |
| #13 Arkansas | 13 | 23 | 10-12 | 8-3 | 10-1 | 5-0 | 5-0 |
| #14 Georgia | 24 | 65 | 9-9 | 9-2 | 4-0 | 15-1 | 2-0 |
| #15 Louisiana | 15 | 3 | 2-10 | 13-1 | 11-1 | 14-1 | 3-0 |
| #16 Baylor | 32 | 99 | 8-8 | 6-1 | 7-6 | 11-0 | 7-0 |
| Clemson | 58 | 53 | 4-6 | 5-1 | 15-0 | 17-1 | 4-0 |
| Oregon | 27 | 46 | 5-10 | 6-3 | 12-1 | 8-0 | 4-0 |
| Auburn | 23 | 54 | 6-10 | 11-4 | 7-2 | 8-0 | 7-0 |
| Florida | 8 | 33 | 6-12 | 8-7 | 8-0 | 8-0 | 5-0 |