Women's Bracketology: 2023 NCAA tournament
The women's NCAA tournament will undergo significant change for the second consecutive season. The field expanded to 68 teams last year. This season, the customary four regional sites have been reduced to two: Seattle and Greenville, South Carolina. The top 16 teams will continue to host the first and second rounds, and the First Four games will again be played at the site of the first-round games to which they feed. Defending champion South Carolina was the preseason favorite a year ago and delivered with the program's second national championship. The heavy favorites once again, the Gamecocks seek to become the first repeat champions since UConn in 2015-16. The Final Four is March 31 and April 2 at American Airlines Arena in Dallas.
Bracket Watch
In our April projection, UConn appeared to be South Carolina's biggest challenger in the NCAA title race. Then Paige Bueckers tore an ACL in early August. Without Bueckers, the 2021 national player of the year, UConn no longer heads into this season as a projected No. 1 seed. The Huskies drop to a No. 2, with Tennessee moving up to the No. 1 line. Stanford, the 2021 national champion, and Texas, which has reached consecutive Elite Eight appearances, are the other 1-seeds. The SEC and ACC each put nine teams in the bracket.
On the Bubble
Last Four Byes
Last Four In
First Four Out
Next Four Out
68-Team Bracket
Greenville
Columbia
- 8
Duke
Norman
Bloomington
South Bend
- 10 Florida
- 15 Maine - aq
Seattle
Austin
- 9 Alabama
Baton Rouge
- 4 LSU
Chapel Hill
- 6 Nebraska
- 11 South Dakota
- 14 Troy - aq
Storrs
- 7 Arkansas
Greenville
Knoxville
- 8 Kansas
Raleigh
Louisville
Iowa City
Seattle
Stanford
Blacksburg
- 5 Baylor
College Park
- 11 Oregon State
- 3 Maryland
Ames
- 10
Georgia Tech
Photo illo by ESPN Illustration, additional photos courtesy of Getty Images, Associated Press, Imagn, Icon Sportswire, EPA/Shutterstock