OKLAHOMA CITY — Texas A&M earned the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division I softball tournament on Sunday, edging four-time defending national champion Oklahoma for the top spot and leading seven Southeastern Conference teams seeded in the top eight.

Oklahoma won the SEC regular-season title by a game over Texas A&M in its first season in the conference. Texas A&M and Oklahoma tied for the conference tournament title after the championship game was canceled because of bad weather.

No. 3 seed Florida, a national semifinalist last season, and No. 4-seeded Arkansas also represent the SEC. Oklahoma State, which has made five consecutive Women’s College World Series appearances, is in the regional with Arkansas.

The final eight teams in the 64-team field will play in the WCWS from May 29 to June 5 in Oklahoma City.

No. 5 seed Florida State, the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season champion, is the top-seeded team from outside the SEC. The Seminoles won the national title in 2018 and were runners-up in 2021 and 2023.

Florida State is followed by three more SEC teams. Texas, the national runner-up two of the past three seasons, is the No. 6 seed. Tennessee, with hard-throwing Karlyn Pickens, is the No. 7 seed. South Carolina is the No. 8 seed after being picked 15th out of 15 teams in the preseason SEC poll.

No. 9 seed UCLA hosts a regional in its first season as a Big Ten member.

No. 10-seeded LSU could be challenged. Nebraska, led by former Oklahoma pitcher Jordyn Bahl, also will be in the Baton Rouge Regional. Bahl was the Most Outstanding Player of the World Series in 2023.

Clemson, the ACC tournament champion after knocking off Florida State in the title game, is the No. 11 seed.

No. 12 seed Texas Tech, the Big 12 regular-season and tournament champion, features reigning National Fastpitch Coaches Association Player of the Year NiJaree Canady. She did not allow a run in 16⅔ innings at the Big 12 Tournament and was named its Most Outstanding Player.

Arizona, which lost to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, earned the No. 13 seed.

Duke reached the WCWS for the first time last season, and it will host a regional this year as the No. 14 seed.

Another SEC team, Alabama, is the No. 15 seed.

Oregon, the Big Ten regular-season champion, is seeded 16th.

Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle a lawsuit claiming the company collected users’ data without permission, according to state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton said the settlement sends a message to tech companies that he will not allow them to profit off “selling away our rights and freedoms.” He also said the agreement “is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement. “For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won.”

GOOGLE SIGNS DEAL WITH NUCLEAR DEVELOPER FOR A TRIO OF ADVANCED ENERGY PRODUCTS

This is the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over similar data-privacy violations, Paxton said.

The agreement settles several claims Texas made against Google in a 2022 lawsuit over geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. The state argued Google was unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data.

Paxton claimed the tech giant collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through applications like Google Photos and Google Assistant.

The agreement settles several claims Texas made against Google in a 2022 lawsuit over geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Google said the agreement settles various “old claims,” including some related to product policies the company has already changed. The company said the settlement does not require any additional product changes.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.

GOOGLE PARENT ALPHABET BUYS BACK STOCK, EXTENDS DIVIDEND IN EARNINGS BEAT

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement “is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.” (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Texas had previously reached two other settlements with Google within the last two years, including in December 2023 when the company agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.

Last year, Meta agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over claims that the company used facial recognition software without users’ consent. The “tag suggestions” feature was specifically cited in the suit, as Facebook would run photos uploaded to the website through its facial recognition software and suggested people to tag in photos.

As the Texas A&M Aggies prepare for their second season under head coach Mike Elko, there is optimism that he could take the program to the heights it hasn’t seen since R.C. Slocum was on the sidelines in College Station.

And while last season didn’t end the way that the Aggies hoped after a strong start to Year 1 under Elko. However, after an offseason where they signed the nation’s No. 9 class before bringing in a transfer portal class that included 14 more players.

Yet, despite the optimism after a seemingly productive offseason for the Aggies, they were ranked No. 4 in the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football “post-spring” power rankings.

“The Aggies lost their final four games against Power Four competition in Year 1 of the Mike Elko era. The schedule is even tougher in 2025 as Texas A&M bets on quarterback Marcel Reed and a strong offensive line,” Mike Craven writes. “The rushing attack could be the best in the SEC with Le’Veon Moss, Amari Daniels and Rueben Owens back. Elko believes a second year in the defensive system will help the Wrecking Crew eliminate the big plays that plagued the unit last season.”

This puts them behind their archrivals, the Texas Longhorns, who rank No. 1, along with Texas Tech and Baylor, both also being ranked ahead of the Aggies.

The Red Raiders and Bears are in an easier conference than the Aggies. However, even with the easier conference, does this power rating project that both are better teams than the Aggies heading into the 2025 season?

If so, then that could suggest the coming season could be a disappointing one for the Aggies. However, that doesn’t seem likely to be the case.

Even in a tougher SEC, the Aggies were just one game away from making the conference title game last season. And while they lost starting contributors along the front seven defensively, they looked to have improved offensively at receiver. If the playmakers on the outside are there, then things could be looking up offensively, especially if they have their star quarterback in Marcel Reed.