The largest field in its history was announced as 48 teams will compete in the 2002 NCAA Division II Softball Championship. Eight six-team regional tournaments get underway Thursday. This year's tournament also featured automatic qualifiers for the first time ever.

The following schools earned regional No. 1 seeds and will play host to this weekend's regional tournaments: Merrimack (Northeast Region), Bloomsburg (Mid-Atlantic), Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (Great Lakes), St. Mary's (South Central), North Dakota State (North Central), North Florida (South Atlantic), Barry (South) and UC Davis (West).

Click here for a complete listing of teams and seedings.