Florida softball will host the Gainesville Regional in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 overall seed. Florida Gulf Coast and FAU also are in the four-team field for games starting Friday.

After a one year sabbatical, the NCAA Regionals are back in Gainesville.

The Gators received the No. 4 overall seed and will be the top team at the Gainesville Regional, set for this weekend at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

UF will be joined by South Alabama, FAU and Florida Gulf Coast.

The Gainesville Regional will be paired with the Stillwater Regional, which features No. 5 overall seed Oklahoma State, Northern Colorado, Michigan and fellow SEC foe Kentucky.

Florida opens vs FGCU Friday at noon on SEC Network.

Two weeks ago, the Gators chances of hosting a regional were in doubt.

However, the orange and blue have been on a tear the last two weeks. It won two of three in Georgia, defeated Florida State and swept Texas A&M.

The momentum carried over big time in Auburn for the SEC Tournament. Florida made quick work of Georgia, Texas A&M and Missouri by a combined score of 22-8 for its first tournament title since 2019.

UF last won a regional in 2022, when it defeated Canisius, Georgia Tech and Wisconsin. It then beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to win super regionals and advance to Oklahoma City and the Women’s College World Series.

In total, the Gators have made the NCAA postseason 24 times in its 29 seasons. They’ve advanced to super regionals 14 times and the WCWS 11 times.

Florida has won the WCWS in 2014 and 2015.

Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.

Whether the expanded College Football Playoff comes as a blessing or a curse depends on which side of the break you’re on and what your rivals are up to.

It’s a grand development for a team like Penn State, which has finished inside the top 12 of the final playoff rankings six times in the past eight years but never qualified for a four-team playoff.

But, what about for a program like Florida? The Gators would’ve made a 12-team playoff in each of Dan Mullen’s first three seasons. The past three seasons, though, the Gators would’ve have been close to anything short of a 60-team playoff.

Meanwhile, Florida’s rivals would’ve marched into an expanded playoff one by one. It’s nauseating enough for Gators fans to stomach all that Dawg barking after Georgia won consecutive national championships. Now, imagine the feeling in Florida of seeing not only Georgia but also Tennessee making the 2022 playoff, or Georgia and Florida State piling into the playoff last season.

Now consider this season, when Georgia, Tennessee, LSU and FSU profile as a playoff hopeful, while the Gators are positioned for more mediocrity. Billy Napier serving a Mayo Bowl appearance Year 3 while four rivals piled into the playoff would come as some kind of sad consolation, indeed.

In the four-team playoff era, if your team plays for mayonnaise while your rival plays in the Citrus Bowl, a fan fluent in mental gymnastics can convince himself that’s about equivalent. That logic doesn’t hold, though, if your rivals take over the first round of the 12-team playoff. No one wants to see their coach slathered in a gross sandwich condiment while several rivals play for the big kids’ prize.

Are Gators fans really supposed to chant “S-E-C! S-E-C!” while Georgia and Tennessee play in a playoff quarterfinal?

This possibility is not unique to Florida.

Since Tennessee won its last national title, rivals Alabama, Florida and Georgia each won multiple national championships throughout the BCS and four-team playoff eras while the Vols cycled through coaches who ranged from losers to brick masons to cheating losers. A maddening decade-plus for Tennessee, it was, before Josh Heupel’s arrival.

Watching Mullen’s Gators claim a few playoff bids would’ve been gasoline to Tennessee’s mattress fire.

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Maybe, in this instance, it’s better to have fewer rivals than Florida or Tennessee – or at least weaker rivals. Missouri left its rivals behind when it left the Big 12. So what if Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss make the playoff while Mizzou heads to a Florida bowl game? The Tigers still can enjoy the reprieve from the snow with the comfort that Kansas won’t make the playoff either.

Lording superiority over the Jayhawks wouldn’t be a salve for LSU fans. Consider this possibility: LSU narrowly misses the playoff in Brian Kelly’s third season, while Alabama qualifies in Kalen DeBoer’s first season and the Lane Train powers Ole Miss into the first round, as well.

In a four-team playoff, there wouldn’t be room for Alabama and Ole Miss. There might not be room for either this season. With 12 qualifiers, ample room exists for both.

Of course, it also increases the possibility that Kelly’s Tigers will qualify.

So, I reiterate: 12-team playoff, blessing or curse?

“More spots in the playoff creates opportunity,” Kelly told me last month in response to that question.

It’s an opportunity, sure.

It’s an opportunity to either make the playoff, or be relegated to an even more irrelevant bowl game, while rivals revel at the real party.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

A digital subscription will allow you access to all of his coverage. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.