Women's Bracketology: 2024 NCAA tournament

By Charlie Creme Updated: 11/14/2023 at 9:00 a.m. ET

Bracketology is back for its 21st season. We will project the field of 68 every week from now until Selection Sunday on March 17. Our bracket will update every Tuesday through December before shifting to semiweekly projections (Tuesday and Friday) once conference play begins in January. Albany, New York, and Portland, Oregon, will host the regionals, as the two-site format remains for a second consecutive year. It all culminates in Cleveland at the Final Four.

Bracket Watch

How was that for a first week? No. 1 LSU and No. 2 UConn both lost, South Carolina looks like it belongs in the WNBA, and the Pac-12 still hasn't lost. After totaling 214 points in their first two games against what were top-16 opponents in Notre Dame and Maryland, the Gamecocks are now the No. 1 overall seed, a spot they held all last season. Colorado and USC have continued to win since pulling upsets on the season's first night and are now No. 2 seeds. They trail 1-seeds UCLA and Utah from the Pac-12, which is a combined 31-0 in the season's first eight days and now has 10 teams in the projected field.

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes

Last Four In

First Four Out

Next Four Out

68-Team Bracket

Albany 1

Columbia

Bloomington

Storrs

Stanford

Portland 4

Salt Lake City

Tallahassee

Austin

Blacksburg

Albany 2

Iowa City

Chapel Hill

Baton Rouge

Boulder

Portland 3

Los Angeles

Knoxville

Columbus

Los Angeles

Conference Breakdown

Conference

Team

Photo illo by ESPN Illustration, additional photos courtesy of Getty Images, Associated Press, Imagn, Icon Sportswire, EPA/Shutterstock

RULES

ESPN's Bracketology efforts are focused on projecting the NCAA tournament field just as we expect the NCAA Division I basketball committee to select the field in March. ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme uses the same data points favored by the committee, including strength of schedule and other season-long indicators, including the NET and team-sheet data similar to what is available to the NCAA, in his projections of the field. Visit the NCAA's website for a fuller understanding of NCAA selection criteria.

64-Team Bracket

The 64-team bracket is the standard version of the NCAA tournament field that has been in place since 1994. If the 2021 field is comprised of 64 teams, there will be some key differences to past years, however.

The primary adjustment from a normal year is, of course, the playing of the entire NCAA tournament at a single site. This eliminates the need for geographical considerations in seeding. Additionally, there will be at least one fewer automatic qualifier this season, as the Ivy League's decision to forgo the 2020-21 season reduces the number of AQ entries to 31 for this season.

48-Team Bracket

In this projection, a condensed selection process would reduce the field by eight at-large teams and eight automatic qualifiers (the latter of which still receive a revenue unit). The top four seeds in each region would receive a bye into the second round, with four first-round games per region - 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9.

16-Team Bracket

In this projection, the committee selects and seeds the 16 best available teams. There are no automatic qualifiers, although all non-competing conference champions receive the designated revenue unit.

To maintain some sense of national balance, conference participation is capped at four teams. And no region shall have more than one team from the same conference.

ESPN

Bracket Watch

Top Overall Seed

First Team Out

Last Team In

On the Bubble

Last Four Byes

Last Four In

First Four Out

Next Four Out

68-Team Bracket

Albany 1

Columbia

Bloomington

Storrs

Stanford

Portland 4

Salt Lake City

Tallahassee

Austin

Blacksburg

Albany 2

Iowa City

Chapel Hill

Baton Rouge

Boulder

Portland 3

Los Angeles

Knoxville

Columbus

Los Angeles

Conference Breakdown

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