Or it would certainly apppear that way.

On a recent Podcast, Matt Larsen, the head of the NCAA D1 Softball Committeee, said this about the host selection process (I transcribed it and posted it on the board at the time):

The Committee’s job is “to build the best possible bracket.” They want to do that with the predetermined sites as well.

The Committee takes a look at a lot of data points and, like other years, there is a lot of criteria to use – it’s never just one data point. He has encouraged the committee to watch as many games as possible in light of the disparity in the number of games played by different teams. Some teams will have played 30 games, some have played 56, some teams are playing only conference games, so you have to take all of that into consideration. Seeing some of those games first hand will help the committee in their selections.

In the past, Strength of Schedule was a great data point that the committee used, but that not be the case quite as much this year. In some cases, we won’t have that opportunity this year. Who are the best 32 at large teams? That’s our challenge.

Generally, the same list of rules applies in terms of selection and bracketing. The bracket is still built the same way. The only difference is predetermined regional sites.

The Committee utilizes 5 Regional Advisory Committees which are made up of coaches to get additional input – first hand evaluation of teams – either within their own conference or teams they have had the opportunity to play. They have those calls every two weeks. What teams are playing well? Who is trending up? Who is trending down?
We take that information to our national call every two weeks to see what the national picture looks like.
That process has been sped up a little bit because of determining the preselected regional sites. Having that information from our regional advisory committees and having as many games played as possible to try to make our best determination of those 16 regional sites. That’s the biggest change this year.

A lot of the same rules still apply with regards to bracketing. The only thing that has changed is picking the regional sites two weeks ahead of time. They still build a bracket the same way. Number of flights versus bus trips are still looked at the same way.

Conference tournaments are one data point, but the most important point is the “full body of work.” How teams are trending at the end of the year is a consideration, but the whole year is important. The end of the season is just as important as the beginning of the season, but we’re trying to look at the full scope of a team’s resume.

The RPI is still a valuable tool for selection. Who knows what the future holds, but that's the tool that they are using now. They are always looking at ways to improve the process.

There are a couple of very challenging parts of the job. When you’re looking at the top 16 or 18 teams in the country and you may literally be splitting hairs on who had the most top 5 or top 10 wins – that is incredibly hard. That’s a credit to the sport of softball.