NORMAN — The Sooners clinched the SEC regular season championship last weekend before they played their final two games against Florida.

But OU coach Patty Gasso certainly doesn't see her team as the favorite heading into the conference tournament this week.

While the Sooners are the No. 1 seed for the SEC Tournament, they head to Athens, Georgia without a ton of momentum. They're ranked fifth in RPI rankings behind four SEC teams; they're ranked at No. 3 by D1 Softball (behind two SEC teams) and at No. 4 by Softball America. Plus, the Sooners lost three of their eight series against SEC opponents, including last weekend at Florida.

"I think we feel like we're going into the tournament like an underdog, and it feels nice to be on that side of things," Gasso said. "So I'm looking forward to this."

The Sooners have a bye through the first two rounds and will begin their tournament run at 10 a.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Here's a look at the tournament schedule and a few notes:

Thursday: No. 1 Sooners vs. Mississippi State/LSU, 10 a.m. (SECN)

Friday semifinals (if OU wins): Sooners vs. Tennessee/Arkansas/Georgia, 3 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday finals (if OU wins): 4 p.m. ESPN

This will be the Sooners' first postseason trip outside the OKC metro in years.

With Devon Park serving as the host site for both the Big 12 Tournament and the Women's College World Series, the Sooners are used to staying home through May and June. But the SEC Tournament is an on-campus event that rotates to all schools. This year's tournament is held at Georgia, and the host sites have been determined through 2029.

It's certainly a different routine for the Sooners.

“It's the newness factor, but it's also a wow factor," Gasso said. "It's no offense at all. And it's one thing, playing at Devon Park is a big advantage for anybody that gets that opportunity. If you're going to get to the World Series, you get to feel it. But the cameras are everywhere. ESPN is showing this around the clock. If you love SEC softball, then you're in for a treat because you get to watch every game on their network. I think that's a big deal.

Is there any chance the SEC Tournament is held at Devon Park?

"Absolutely not. No shot," Gasso joked. "They're already complaining that we're playing there in the first place for the World Series. But it's a big deal for campuses to get this opportunity. I think our opportunity -- I'll be long long gone by then. So hopefully I'll still be alive to see it, witness it... Devon Park makes sense. But not to them. But it is an excitement for sure. You can feel it about different locations and you can feel that buzz."

The Sooners certainly didn't put their best foot forward against the Gators. It was an unusual weekend, with the Sooners clinching the SEC regular season title before Game 2 even began.

Still, the Sooners can't use that as an excuse.

"This team is very eager to play and to be at that level where we have a lot of competition," Nelly McEnroe-Marinas said. " The SEC is a hard conference, but especially going into the SEC tournament, we are most likely going to see teams that we have faced before. So I feel like it's just us getting a chance to see them again, and you know how that goes. But we're just excited to face them again and respond."

Here's what Gasso had to say about clinching the SEC championship last weekend in the middle of the Florida series.

"I did not like that. And the women from ESPN are making a big deal. And I’m pretending like I’m not hearing them, like what? Because it’s easy – I’m not saying our team did this. Florida was ready. There are a lot of reasons why Florida has been waiting for us. One, because of the way we ended their season last year. Two, they have a lot of very good seniors. Three, they had an absolutely packed house. They were waiting for this. We knew it, but it wasn’t like we know it so let’s not care.

"We were almost caring too much. And personally? I really wanted to get one more of those games so we could say we won the series. I don’t know, why do I feel that way? We won it. We outright won it. If we didn’t outright win it, they wouldn’t have announced it. I’m like, what am I stressing over? Like we had to prove something more. You can look at us losing a few series. What you’re not talking about are the big-time series that we swept that happened early in the season. I’m just so mad at myself for having that mentality of pretending we don’t hear it or know it. We came back here and had a big celebration over it because we should."