2022 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament

2022 NCAA Division I
Women's Basketball Tournament
Season	2021–22
Teams	68
Finals site	Target Center; Minneapolis, Minnesota
NCAA Division I Women's Tournaments
«2021	»

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.

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.^[1]

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. (meaning where the two seeds add up to 17, that team will be assigned to play another). 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 Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 68.

2022 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues[]

Bridgeport

Greensboro

Wichita

Spokane

Minneapolis

2022 NCAA Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

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)

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

March 25–28^[2]
- Bridgeport Regional, Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Connecticut (cohosts: University of Connecticut, Fairfield University)^[3]
- Greensboro Regional, Greensboro Coliseum Complex, Greensboro, North Carolina (host: Atlantic Coast Conference)^[4]
- Wichita Regional, Intrust Bank Arena, Wichita, Kansas (host: Wichita State University)^[5]
- Spokane Regional, Spokane Arena, Spokane, Washington (host: Gonzaga University)^[6]

National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

April 1 and April 3
- Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (host: University of Minnesota)^[7]

This is the second time the women's Final Four will be played in Minneapolis (previously, in 1995).^[2]

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.^[8]

Media coverage[]

Television[]

Television channels[]

First Four –
First and Second Rounds –
Regional Semifinals and Final (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) –
National Semifinals (Final Four) and Championship –

Studio hosts and analysts[]

Broadcast assignments[]

First Four

First and Second Rounds

Regionals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)

Final Four and National Championship

Radio[]

Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.