Any further games would be entirely dependent on the results of other games. The entire list of possibilities takes of up two full pages in the NCAA Handbook.

As a coach, Allard can see the positive side to the assignment to Norman, Oklahoma, as opposed to Seattle or Los Angeles or any of the other seemingly more appealing locations.

"I'm excited to go to Oklahoma," Allard said. "The team preferred the west coast because so many of the kids are from there. But this is exactly where we need to go, because going here we can focus on softball."

No. 6 seeds have had some success in the NCAA Tournament. Last year, the first time the tournament field had a full 48 teams, six-seed Florida Atlantic won games against top-seed Michigan and four-seed Central Michigan before falling in close contests to Arizona State and Nebraska.

Ivy teams have also had their share of success in the tournament. Princeton was the last Ivy team to reach the College World Series. The Tigers did it twice in the mid-1990s, but back then regionals were entirely geographically-based, meaning that Princeton never had to face any of the talented teams from the west to make it.

The last Ivy team to win a game in the NCAA Tournament was, actually, Harvard in 1998. The Crimson posted a dominant 11-2 win over Boston College in between the two losses to Oklahoma.

While the pairing with Oklahoma may have been a slight downer at the time, by Thursday the Crimson will be entirely focused on beating the Sooners.

"Going to the west coast we'd have been totally distracted," Allard said. "This is the best thing that could've happened."