How are teams selected for the NCAA women’s tournament?

March Madness is here and the 2022 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is ahead. Before we get into the action, on Sunday, March 13th we will have the Selection Show to find out the field for the bracket. For the first time in history, the women’s field will expand to 68 teams as they add four play-in games to precede the first round. The Selection Show will air at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Tournament will still feature the 32 teams that earned automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. There isn’t a set formula for how they determine the at-large teams, but they take into account several stats, rankings and other information. The selection committee is made up of 12 members who range from conference commissioners to athletic directors.

Once the selection show wraps up, we will have a tournament bracket! The new play-in games will be held on March 16-17 at the site of the opponent that is hosting the first and second round, and the first round will officially get underway on Friday, March 18th.