Alabama State won its conference, but didn't get spot into NCAA postseason. Here's why

Last Wednesday, Alabama State women's golf won the Southwestern Athletic Conference title and locked up a spot in NCAA Regionals. Or so most people thought.

In women's college golf, there are 29 conferences with automatic spots guaranteed into regionals for teams who won their conference championships, including the SWAC. It wasn't until Wednesday, when the fields for the six regional sites were announced, that Alabama State learned it wasn't listed in the field.

How it happened has caused some confusion.

Arkansas Pine-Bluff didn't sponsor women’s golf for the 2024-25 academic year, meaning the SWAC had only five programs and not the necessary six to qualify the conference for an automatic-qualifying berth. That meant Alabama State didn't, after all, earn a spot in NCAA Regionals with its win last week.

However, leading up to the selection show, information on the NCAA website listed 29 automatic qualifying teams and 43 at-large bids. On Golf Channel, the selection show graphic before regional sites were announced had those figures listed.

Even on the NCAA Women's Golf homepage, a story previewing the postseason said there were 29 automatic qualifying teams after Regionals were set Wednesday.

Ultimately, the final tally was 28 automatic and 44 at-large bids were awarded, with Alabama State left out.

UC Davis was the team securing the final at-large spot in the women's field.