(Andrew Greif/The Oregonian, 2016)
For the first time since 2012, Oregon's softball team will not end the regular season by celebrating a Pac-12 championship.
That title will instead go to Arizona, which clinched its first conference crown in a decade last weekend. Even if UO won all three games on the road against Stanford in their season-ending series beginning Thursday, Oregon still would fall one game short in the standings.
That's hardly to say, however, that the Ducks have little to play for this week.
With a No. 2 ranking in the NCAA's latest RPI, UO (44-6) can lock down one of 16 seeds in the NCAA's 64-team postseason tournament -- and the role of regional host that comes with it.