Here is how the 68 teams are selected, seeded and placed in the NCAA bracket each season by the NCAA DI women’s basketball committee.
The following information is taken from the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship Principles and Procedures for Establishing the Bracket (click or tap the link to see the .PDF).
There are three phases in the process:
I. Select the 37 at-large teams;
II. Seed the field of 68 teams; and
III. Place the teams into the championship bracket
General Principles for Selection, Seeding and Bracketing
The basketball committee will abide by the following principles:
- A committee member (“member”) shall not be present during discussions regarding the selection or seeding of a team the individual represents as an institutional or conference administrator.
- At no point in the process shall a member vote for a team the individual represents as an institutional or conference administrator.
- A member shall not answer questions about the team the individual represents, except for factual questions (e.g., dates of injuries, status of injured players). A conference administrator is permitted to answer general questions (i.e., relative strengths of teams within a conference) about teams in the conference the individual represents. An…
