Women's Bracketology: 2022 NCAA tournament

By Charlie Creme Updated: 1/25/2022 at 9:45 a.m. ET

The 2022 women's NCAA tournament will have a considerably different look than what we saw last March. Fans will be back, and host cities for the first and second rounds, as well as four distinct regional sites, also return. The biggest change, however, is the shift to a 68-team field from 64 previously. The women's bracket selection also moves up a day, to Selection Sunday. ESPN will be with you every step of the way, projecting the NCAA tournament bracket and which teams are on the bubble as the march toward Minneapolis and the Final Four continues.

Bracket Watch

All the metrics suggest that UConn is at worst a No. 4 seed and would host a pair of games in the NCAA tournament if it were to start today. But does the NCAA selection committee see the Huskies that way? That's one of the answers we will get Thursday when the NCAA reveals it current top-16 teams, the first look into how the committee evaluates the season so far. The No. 1 seeds should be South Carolina, NC State, Stanford and Tennessee -- in that order -- but there are bigger storylines: The front-loaded but now more competitive Big 12 could put anywhere from two to five teams on the list. BYU, the lone contender outside of the Power 5 conferences and the Big East, should also make the top 16.

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes

Last Four In

First Four Out

Next Four Out

68-Team Bracket

Bridgeport

Raleigh

Storrs

Athens

Bloomington

Greensboro

Columbia

Austin

Provo

Tucson

Wichita

Knoxville

Waco

Ann Arbor

Louisville

Spokane

Stanford

Atlanta

Ames

Baton Rouge

Conference Breakdown

Conference

Team

Photo illo by ESPN Illustration, additional photos courtesy of Getty Images, Associated Press, Imagn, Icon Sportswire, EPA/Shutterstock

RULES

ESPN's Bracketology efforts are focused on projecting the NCAA tournament field just as we expect the NCAA Division I basketball committee to select the field in March. ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme uses the same data points favored by the committee, including strength of schedule and other season-long indicators, including the NET and team-sheet data similar to what is available to the NCAA, in his projections of the field. Visit the NCAA's website for a fuller understanding of NCAA selection criteria.

64-Team Bracket

The 64-team bracket is the standard version of the NCAA tournament field that has been in place since 1994. If the 2021 field is comprised of 64 teams, there will be some key differences to past years, however.

The primary adjustment from a normal year is, of course, the playing of the entire NCAA tournament at a single site. This eliminates the need for geographical considerations in seeding. Additionally, there will be at least one fewer automatic qualifier this season, as the Ivy League's decision to forgo the 2020-21 season reduces the number of AQ entries to 31 for this season.

48-Team Bracket

In this projection, a condensed selection process would reduce the field by eight at-large teams and eight automatic qualifiers (the latter of which still receive a revenue unit). The top four seeds in each region would receive a bye into the second round, with four first-round games per region - 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9.

16-Team Bracket

In this projection, the committee selects and seeds the 16 best available teams. There are no automatic qualifiers, although all non-competing conference champions receive the designated revenue unit.

To maintain some sense of national balance, conference participation is capped at four teams. And no region shall have more than one team from the same conference.