Three Big 12 schools are ranked in the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball Preseason Polls, it was announced.

For the second year in a row, Oklahoma was chosen by the league's head coaches as the frontrunner for the Big 12 softball title in 2010.

Megan Smith has been named the eighth head softball coach for the Kansas Jayhawks. Smith served an assistant softball coach at Louisiana State University, and helped guide LSU to three NCAA Tournament appearances

Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers announced Shanon Hays as new head coach for the Red Raider softball program. Hays will become the seventh head softball coach in the history of the program, and the fifth since the inception of the Big 12 in 1996.

Oklahoma's Amber Flores led the Big 12 as the only first-team selection on the 2009 Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-America Team. The league also had three tabbed on the second team, as all four honorees on this year's list were also All-Big 12 First Team selections.

Missouri might be the Cinderella of the Women's College World Series but the Tigers aren't waiting on midnight.

Many students-athletes attend college to fulfill their dream of playing Division I athletics, or to accomplish a life-long goals such as getting into medical school. For Texas Tech senior Megan Shupp, her plans included both.

Missouri has advanced to represent the Big 12 at the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's College World Series beginning May 28 at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla. It is the fourth time in the 34-year history of the Mizzou softball program, first in 14 years, that the Tigers have advanced to the WCWS.