SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State is ranked 25th in Softball America preseason top-25 poll, which was released Thursday.
The Aztecs are 25th in the preseason poll, right behind No. 21 Alabama, No. 22 Washington, No. 23 Louisiana and No. 24 Florida. Three-time defending champion Oklahoma tops the poll, which was compiled by Tara Henry (former managing editor of D1Softball and national champion at UCLA), Jen McIntyre (former UConn head coach) and Brady Vernon (formerly of DISoftball).
SDSU, which is scheduled to play three teams that made the 2023 Women's College World Series and 18 games overall against 15 teams who made the 2023 NCAA tournament, are set to play seven of the teams this year in the Softball America preseason top-25 poll, including No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Stanford, No. 12 LSU (twice), No. 13 Utah, No. 15 Nebraska, No. 16 Oregon and No. 19 Texas A&M (twice).
San Diego State finished the 2023 campaign with a 39-17 record, advancing to the program's first super regional after capturing the NCAA Los Angeles Regional, and being ranked No. 18 in the final ESPN/USA Softball poll and 19th in the final USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll. The Aztecs won the Mountain West tournament, the first held since 2006, with a perfect 3-0 record after finishing second in regular-season play.
SDSU begins 2024 with the SDSU Season Kickoff from Thursday, Feb. 8-to-Sunday, Feb. 11 at SDSU Softball Stadium. The season-opening tournament looks more like the toughest NCAA regional, featuring No. 3 (in last year's final RPI) Stanford, No. 27 San Diego State, No. 28 Minnesota and No. 29 Kentucky, along with UC Santa Barbara. The Aztecs kick off the season against Stanford on Thursday, before meeting Minnesota on Friday, and Kentucky and UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
Softball America Preseason Top-25
1. Oklahoma
2. Tennessee
3. Florida State
4. Stanford
5. Clemson
6. Georgia
7. Texas
8. Arkansas
9. Duke
10. UCLA
11. Baylor
12. LSU
13. Utah
14. Oklahoma State
15. Nebraska
16. Oregon
17. South Carolina
18. Virginia Tech
19. Texas A&M
20. Auburn
21. Alabama
22. Washington
23. Louisiana
24. Florida
25. San Diego State