In anticipation of tomorrow's opening of the Women's College World Series (see link to timetable in yesterday's posting, below), I thought it would be interesting to see how the eight participating teams did head-to-head against each other during the year. To this end, I have created the following network diagram.


Three findings jump out at me:

*Nearly all the teams have some experience playing against other teams that ultimately made the WCWS. To some extent, this is a result of teams' being in the same conferences. However, a good number of these games were nonconference affairs, usually in tournaments.

*Baylor is the only team to have a winning record against every fellow World Series team it faced.

*Tennessee is the only team not to have faced any other World Series teams. Perhaps the Volunteers' philosophy was that they'd get enough tough competition in SEC play, but no other SEC teams have made it to Oklahoma City.