Four of the seven Big 12 teams made the NCAA Tournament this year, but perhaps surprisingly, Kansas was not one of them.
Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas, and fifth-place finisher Oklahoma State were all selected for the Tournament (OU was the auto bid), but fourth-place Kansas got the cold shoulder. The Jayhawks (31-20, 8-9) finished 2.5 games ahead of Oklahoma State (29-24, 6-11) in the Big 12 standings, but dropping a two-game set to OSU late in the season must have had a significant amount of influence on the selection committee.
In addition, Oklahoma State played a much more difficult non-conference schedule than the Jayhawks did. By my count, Oklahoma State had 18 non-conference games against teams that made this year's NCAA Softball Tournament, going 9-9 in those matchups. Kansas played six such non-conference games, going 0-6. (My numbers could be a game or two off.)
Despite winning a game against Big 12 Champ and overall #3 seed Oklahoma, KU just didn't win enough games overall against quality opponents to garner an invitation.
It's a disappointing end to the season for the Jayhawks, especially for the seniors on the team who were looking to lead KU to a third consecutive NCAA Tournament.
We'll wrap up the 2016 KU softball season later this week on RCT.