Women's Bracketology: 2023 NCAA tournament

By Charlie Creme Updated: 4/18/2023 at 9:00 a.m. ET

The format for the 2024 NCAA tournament will stay the same for the first time in three years. The move to two regionals returns, with Albany, New York, and Portland, Oregon, as hosts. The Final Four shifts to Cleveland for the first time since 2007. At this time last year, South Carolina was the clear favorite. UConn assumes that role heading into the 2023-24 season, albeit not nearly as overwhelmingly as South Carolina a year ago.

Bracket Watch

Iowa, as a No. 2 seed, and No. 3 seed LSU battled for the national championship three weeks ago. With the Hawkeyes' Caitlin Clark and the Tigers' Angel Reese leading the way, count them as favorites to get to Cleveland in 2024 as both teams open as No. 1 seeds in our offseason Bracketology. UConn, the overall No. 1 seed, and Utah, a newcomer to elite status, are the other teams on the top line. The NCAA tournament landscape looks even more balanced after only two 1-seeds reached the Final Four. Familiar names South Carolina and Stanford are still in the top 16 but will have to figure out significant personnel losses. With the Utes, Cardinal and UCLA leading the way, the Pac-12 has the most tournament teams with nine; the ACC and Big Ten each have eight.

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes

Last Four In

First Four Out

Next Four Out

68-Team Bracket

Albany 1

Storrs

College Park

Blacksburg

Columbia

Portland 4

Salt Lake City

Austin

Oxford

Bloomington

Albany 2

Baton Rouge

Stanford

South Bend

Columbus

Portland 3

Iowa City

Waco

Knoxville

Los Angeles

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.