Ames, Iowa ? Crucial tournament seeding will be at stake when Kansas University concludes the softball regular season this weekend against Iowa State.

Game times are 2 p.m. today and noon Sunday at the ISU softball complex.

“We need to score some runs and take care of business,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said.

KU will seeking the No. 6 seed in next week’s Big 12 Conference tournament in Oklahoma City. To do that, the Jayhawks need to win just one game from the cellar-dwelling Cyclones.

Currently, Texas is the No. 6 seed with an 8-10 record while the Jayhawks are No. 7 with a 7-9 mark. However, the Longhorns have concluded conference play and must depend on an ISU sweep to maintain that sixth seed.

If both Kansas and Texas finish with 8-10 league records, KU will earn the No. 6 seed based on the run differential when the two schools collided earlier this season. In early April in Austin, Texas, Kansas won the first game, 2-0, and UT the second contest, 3-2. Thus, KU has a 4-3 advantage in runs scored.

But if KU sweeps the hapless Cyclones (22-39 overall, 1-15 Big 12), the tiebreaker will be moot, and the Jayhawks will own the coveted No. 6 seed outright.

The difference between the sixth and seventh seeds is huge because No. 7 must participate in a play-in game Thursday in Oklahoma City, while the No. 6 seed doesn’t have to play until Friday.

Kansas entered last year’s tournament as the No. 6 seed and went on to capture its first Big 12 tourney title.