The NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee has announced the top 16 teams for the 2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. The selection was done from a field of 68 and announced on Sunday, March 15.
UConn, the reigning champions, have been named the No. 1 overall seed with UCLA, Texas and South Carolina joining them in the top line. These four teams will host games in the first and second rounds scheduled for next weekend. Every team that is placed between 1-4 seed will be hosts to the tournament. The matches will then shift to the regional areas later in the month.
The two regional venues of this tournament are Fort Worth, Texas (Dickies Arena) and Sacramento, California (Golden 1 Center) in which the matches will take place from March 27 to 30. Both the sites will be hosting two regional semifinal games one on March 27 and two on March 28. In addition to that they will also host a regional championship game on March 29 and one on March 31.
There are a total 31 Division I conferences that include direct berths in the total 68, with the rest 37 included at-large selections. However, the 2026 NCAA Women’s Final Four will be played on April 3 and 5 at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
16 teams named for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee
• Duke – Durham, North Carolina (24-8)
• Iowa – Iowa City, Iowa (26-6)
• Louisville – Louisville, Kentucky (27-7)
• LSU – Baton Rouge, Louisiana (27-5)
• Michigan – Ann Arbor, Michigan (25-6)
• Minnesota – Minneapolis, Minnesota (22-8)
• North Carolina – Chapell Hill, North Carolina (26-7)
• Ohio State – Columbus, Ohio (26-7)
• Oklahoma – Norman, Oklahoma (24-7)
• South Carolina – Columbia, South Carolina (31-3)
• TCU – Fort Worth, Texas (29-5)
• Texas – Austin, Texas (31-3)
• UCLA – Los Angeles, California (31-1)
• UConn – Storrs, Connecticut (34-0)
• Vanderbilt – Nashville, Tennessee (27-4)
• West Virginia – Morgantown, West Virginia (27-6)
