Big 12 Conference softball coaches have picked Nebraska to win the league championship this spring, while Kansas University was tapped seventh out of 10 teams.

Kansas State and Colorado do not field varsity softball teams.

Nebraska returns five position players and two starting pitchers from last year’s College World Series team. The Huskers received five of a possible nine first-place votes in the coaches’ poll and edged regular-season and tournament-champion Texas in the preseason coaches’ vote.

Both Texas and Oklahoma received two first-place votes and Baylor received one.

Kansas finished seventh in the league race last season, and has been predicted to finished seventh again despite losing eight seniors and one of its top returnees.

Sophomore Serena Settlemier, who posted a 12-7 record and a 1.88 earned run average in 2002, is sidelined with a wrist injury that may force her to be red-shirted. Settlemier also was the Jayhawks’ third-leading hitter last spring with a .297 average.

Kansas will open Feb. 7-9 at a tournament in St. Augustine, Fla.

Here are the results of the coaches’ poll with total points and first-place votes in parentheses: 1. Nebraska (5) 77. 2. Texas (2) 70. 3. Oklahoma (2) 67. 4. Baylor (1) and Texas A&M, both 54. 6. Oklahoma State 44. 7. Kansas 32. 8. Iowa State 21. 9. Missouri 19. 10. Texas Tech 12.