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The 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament will involve 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion for the 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 40th annual edition of the tournament is scheduled to begin in March 2022 and will conclude with the championship game on April 3 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Big South champion Longwood, Horizon champion IUPUI and Southland champion Incarnate Word are making their tournament debuts.

This will be the first women's tournament to feature 68 teams, expanding from the 64-team field used from 1994 through 2021 and matching the men's 68-team field in use since 2011.

Tennessee continued its record streak of making every edition of the tournament.

Tournament procedure

A total of 68 teams will enter the 2022 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 36 bids are "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible. The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc. With the expansion, Women's play-in games will played for the first time. Like the Men's, the last four at-large teams and teams seeded 65 through 68 will compete in opening-round games prior to the start of the first and second rounds of the championship.

The top four teams outside of the ranking (commonly known as the "first four out" in pre-tourney analyses) will act as standbys in the event a school is forced to withdraw before the start of the tournament due to COVID-19 protocols. Once the tournament starts, any team that is forced to withdraw would not be replaced; the bracket was not reseeded, and the affected team's opponent would automatically advance to the next round.

Any single-bid automatic champion would have to designate a preapproved replacement from within their own conference should they withdraw. Otherwise, the replacement teams are as follows, in order:

The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 68.

2022 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues

The first two rounds, also referred to as the subregionals, will be played at the sites of the top 16 seeds, as was done from 2016 to 2019.

First Four

• March 16 and 17
  • Will take place at four of the campuses seeded in the Top 16.

Subregionals (First and Second Rounds)

• March 18 and 20 (Fri/Sun)
  • Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina (Host: University of South Carolina)
  • James Hilton Coliseum, Ames, Iowa (Host: Iowa State University)
  • Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa (Host: University of Iowa)
  • KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Kentucky (Host: University of Louisville)
  • Ferrell Center, Waco, Texas (Host: Baylor University)
  • Maples Pavilion, Stanford, California (Host: Stanford University)
  • XFINITY Center, College Park, Maryland (Host: University of Maryland)
  • Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas (Host: University of Texas)

• March 19 and 21 (Sat/Mon)
  • McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona (Host: University of Arizona
  • Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee)
  • Crisler Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan (Host: University of Michigan)
  • Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Host: Louisiana State University)
  • Reynolds Coliseum, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)
  • Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Oklahoma (Host: University of Oklahoma)
  • Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana (Host: Indiana University)
  • Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Connecticut (Host: University of Connecticut)

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 25–28
  • Bridgeport Regional, Total Mortgage Arena, Bridgeport, Connecticut (cohosts: University of Connecticut, Fairfield University)
  • Greensboro Regional, Greensboro Coliseum Complex, Greensboro, North Carolina (host: Atlantic Coast Conference)
  • Wichita Regional, Intrust Bank Arena, Wichita, Kansas (host: Wichita State University)
  • Spokane Regional, Spokane Arena, Spokane, Washington (host: Gonzaga University)

National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

• April 1 and April 3
  • Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (host: University of Minnesota)

This is the second time the women's Final Four will be played in Minneapolis (previously, in 1995).

In the wake of criticism raised in 2021 over inequities between the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, the NCAA announced that the 2022 women's tournament will be promoted with the "March Madness" branding for the first time.

Qualification and selection teams

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams automatically qualified for the 2022 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.

Bids by state

Tournament seeds (list by region)

*See First Four

Tournament bracket

All times are listed as Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
* – Denotes overtime period

First Four

Greensboro Regional – Greensboro, North Carolina

Greensboro Regional Final

Greensboro Regional all tournament team

Wichita Regional – Wichita, Kansas

Wichita Regional Final

Wichita Regional all tournament team

Spokane Regional – Spokane, Washington

Spokane Regional Final

Spokane Regional all tournament team

Bridgeport Regional – Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport Regional Final

Bridgeport Regional all tournament team

Final Four – Minneapolis, Minnesota

National Semifinals

National Championship

Final Four all-tournament team

Record by conference

• The R64, R32, S16, E8, F4, CG, and NC columns indicate how many teams from each conference were in the round of 64 (first round), round of 32 (second round), Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game, and national champion, respectively.

Game Summaries and tournament notes

Upsets

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Media coverage

Television

ESPN served as broadcaster of the tournament, as part of its multi-year deal to broadcast NCAA national championships. Following a similar broadcast arrangement to the men's tournament under the CBS/Turner consortium, ESPN announced that all games in the tournament would be televised nationally in their entirety by either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, or ABC, rather than use a mix of regional broadcasts, streaming, and "whiparound" feeds.

Television channels

• First Four – ESPN2 and ESPNU
• First and Second Round – ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, and ABC
• Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) – ESPN and ESPN2
• National Semifinals (Final Four) and Championship – ESPN

Number of games per network

• ESPN:
• ESPN2:
• ESPNU:
• ESPNEWS:
• ABC:

Studio host and analysts

• Elle Duncan (Host) (First Four, First, Second Rounds, Regionals, Final Four, and National Championship Game)
• Kelsey Riggs (Host) (First Four, First, and Second Rounds)
• Rebecca Lobo (Analyst) (First Four, First, Second Rounds, Final Four, and National Championship Game)
• Andraya Carter (Analyst) (First Four, First, and Second Rounds)
• Nikki Fargas (Analyst) (First Four, First, Second Rounds, Regionals, Final Four, and National Championship Game)
• Monica McNutt (Analyst) (First Four, First, Second Rounds, and Regionals)
• Carolyn Peck (Analyst) (Final Four and National Championship Game)

Broadcast assignments

Radio

Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.

Regional Finals

Final Four and Championship

Internet

Video

Live video of games was available for streaming through the following means:

Audio

Live audio of games was available for streaming through the following means:

Local announcers

International

ESPN International had international rights to the tournament.

Most-watched tournament games

All times Eastern. Tournament seedings and region are in parentheses.

See also

• 2022 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

References

1. "Expansion of 2022 DI women's basketball tournament to 68 teams approved". ncaa.com. 2018-11-17. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
2. Alexa Philippou (2022-03-13). "Louisville joins South Carolina, Stanford and NC State in securing No. 1 seeds in NCAA women's basketball tournament". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2022-03-13.
3. ^ "Women's Final Four: Future dates & sites". www.ncaa.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
4. Bonjour, Doug (2018-07-19). "Women's basketball regionals returning to Bridgeport in 2022". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
5. "Greensboro Picked For 2022 Women's Basketball Regional". WFMY. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
6. Viviani, KWCH; Nick. "Wichita selected to host 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Regionals". www.wibw.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. "Spokane chosen as regional site for 2021, 2022 Women's NCAA Tournament | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
8. "Women's regional sites announced for '21-22". ESPN.com. 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
9. "NCAA women's basketball tournament will also use "March Madness" branding in 2022". Awful Announcing. 2021-09-29. Retrieved 2021-09-30.
10. "Meet Us in Minneapolis – The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship Begins Wednesday, March 16". ESPN Press Room U.S. 2022-03-14. Retrieved 2022-03-14.

External links

• NCAA Women's Basketball Division I

• 2021–22 in American women's college basketball
• 2022 in sports in Minnesota
• March 2022 sports events in the United States
• April 2022 sports events in the United States
• NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
• 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season
• Current sports events