Women's Bracketology: 2023 NCAA tournament

By Charlie Creme Updated: 1/31/2023 at 9:30 a.m. ET

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 is the heavy favorite, and 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 Center in Dallas.

Bracket Watch

Columbia grabbing sole possession of first place from Penn means the Ivy League is now a one-bid league. Since the Lions already were in as at-large, it opens another spot for a bubble team, and it goes to Georgia in this update. This scenario could play out again, perhaps even multiple times, during Championship Week, so let this serve as an early primer for the bid-stealer conversation. Gonzaga (WCC) and Middle Tennessee (C-USA) are virtual locks to make the field. But if they stumble in the conference tournament and the automatic bid goes to another squad, those leagues are getting two teams into the field. That means a bubble team gets left out. Columbia, Florida Gulf Coast (ASUN) and South Dakota State (Summit) aren't quite as guaranteed as at-large selections, but they would be thrown into the bubble mix if they don't win their conference tournaments. That also applies to UNLV (MWC). These are teams that could make the bubble bigger, creating more competition and nervous moments for the Last Four In or even the Last Four Byes.

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes

Last Four In

First Four Out

Next Four Out

68-Team Bracket

Greenville

Columbia

Los Angeles

South Bend

Columbus

Seattle

Storrs

Tallahassee

College Park

Baton Rouge

Greenville

Bloomington

Ames

Chapel Hil

Salt Lake City

Seattle

Stanford

Ann Arbor

Durham

Iowa City

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.

ESPN

Bracket Watch

Top Overall Seed

First Team Out

Last Team In

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes

Last Four In

First Four Out

Next Four Out

68-Team Bracket

Greenville

Columbia

Los Angeles

South Bend

Columbus

Seattle

Storrs

Tallahassee

College Park

Baton Rouge

Greenville

Bloomington

Ames

Chapel Hil

Salt Lake City

Seattle

Stanford

Ann Arbor

Durham

Iowa City

Conference Breakdown

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