2026 Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament
| Season | 2025–26 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | 32 | ||||
| Finals site | Charles Koch Arena, Wichita, Kansas | ||||
| |||||
The 2026 Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) is an upcoming single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I women's college basketball teams not selected to participate in the 2026 NCAA tournament. The tournament will begin on March 19 and end on April 1. The first three rounds will be played on the campuses of various schools, and the semifinal and championship games will be played at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.[1]
Participants
Teams and pairings for the 2026 WBIT were released by the WBIT committee on Sunday, March 15, 2025. Thirty–two teams qualified for the WBIT, including both automatic qualifiers and at-large selections.
Automatic qualifiers
The regular-season champion of any NCAA Division I conference (as determined by the conference's tiebreaking protocol) not otherwise selected for the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament will, if eligible, secure an automatic qualification invitation to the WBIT. Like the Division I tournament committee, the WBIT selection committee used a variety of resources to determine the participating teams.
| Team | Conference | Record | Appearance | Last bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama A&M | SWAC | 22–10 | 1st | Never |
| Chattanooga | Southern | 20–10 | 1st | Never |
| Eastern Kentucky | ASUN | 24–8 | 1st | Never |
| Georgia Southern | Sun Belt | 23–7 | 1st | Never |
| Louisiana Tech | CUSA | 26–6 | 1st | Never |
| Loyola Marymount | WCC | 26–6 | 1st | Never |
| McNeese | Southland | 28–5 | 1st | Never |
| Navy | Patriot | 22–8 | 1st | Never |
| North Dakota State | Summit | 28–4 | 1st | Never |
| Quinnipiac | MAAC | 26–6 | 2nd | 2025 |
| Rice | American | 28–5 | 1st | Never |
| San Diego State | Mountain West | 25–5 | 1st | Never |
| UC Irvine | Big West | 26–6 | 1st | Never |
At-large bids
The following teams were awarded at-large bids.
| Team | Conference | Record | Appearance | Last bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BYU | Big 12 | 22–11 | 2nd | 2024 |
| California | ACC | 19–14 | 2nd | 2024 |
| Columbia | Ivy | 20–8 | 1st | Never |
| Georgia Tech | ACC | 14–18 | 2nd | 2024 |
| George Mason | Atlantic 10 | 23–9 | 2nd | 2024 |
| Harvard | Ivy | 18–11 | 1st | Never |
| Kansas | Big 12 | 19–13 | 1st | Never |
| Kansas State | Big 12 | 18–17 | 1st | Never |
| Miami (FL) | ACC | 17–14 | 1st | Never |
| Missouri | SEC | 16–16 | 1st | Never |
| Oregon State | WCC | 23–11 | 1st | Never |
| Santa Clara | WCC | 24–9 | 2nd | 2024 |
| Seton Hall | Big East | 19–12 | 3rd | 2025 |
| St. John's | Big East | 22–11 | 2nd | 2024 |
| Stanford | ACC | 19–13 | 2nd | 2025 |
| Texas A&M | SEC | 14–12 | 1st | Never |
| Troy | Sun Belt | 25–7 | 1st | Never |
| Utah | Big 12 | 19–12 | 1st | Never |
| Wisconsin | Big Ten | 13–17 | 1st | Never |
Bracket
* – Denotes overtime period.
First and second round games are hosted at campus sites of higher seed unless stated otherwise.
| First round March 19 Campus sites | Second round March 22 Campus sites | Quarterfinal March 26 Campus sites | ||||||||||||
| 1 | BYU | 72 | ||||||||||||
| Alabama A&M | 47 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | BYU | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Missouri | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Missouri | 67 | ||||||||||||
| Seton Hall[a] | 57 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | George Mason | 64 | ||||||||||||
| Quinnipiac | 71 | |||||||||||||
| Quinnipiac | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Stanford | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Stanford | 80 | ||||||||||||
| Loyola Marymount | 76 | |||||||||||||
| First round March 19 Campus sites | Second round March 22 Campus sites | Quarterfinal March 26 Campus sites | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Texas A&M | 48 | ||||||||||||
| McNeese | 68 | |||||||||||||
| McNeese | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | San Diego State | |||||||||||||
| 4 | San Diego State[b] | 61 | ||||||||||||
| UC Irvine | 55 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Rice | 66 | ||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech | 61 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Rice | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas | 79 | ||||||||||||
| Troy | 70 | |||||||||||||
| First round March 19 Campus sites | Second round March 22 Campus sites | Quarterfinal March 26 Campus sites | ||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota State | 75 | ||||||||||||
| Chattanooga | 62 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | North Dakota State | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Columbia | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Columbia | 74 | ||||||||||||
| St. John's | 26 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | California | 72 | ||||||||||||
| Santa Clara | 68 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | California | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas State | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Kansas State | 69 | ||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | 65 | |||||||||||||
| First round March 19 Campus sites | Second round March 22 Campus sites | Quarterfinal March 26 Campus sites | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Utah | 58 | ||||||||||||
| Eastern Kentucky[c] | 72 | |||||||||||||
| Eastern Kentucky | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Harvard | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Harvard | 73 | ||||||||||||
| Navy | 52 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Wisconsin | 62 | ||||||||||||
| Oregon State[d] | 58 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Wisconsin | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Miami (FL) | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Miami (FL) | 82 | ||||||||||||
| Georgia Southern | 56 | |||||||||||||
Semifinals and championship
| Semifinals March 30 Charles Koch Arena | Final April 1 Charles Koch Arena | ||||||||
See also
References
- ^ "2026 WBIT: Schedule, game times, TV channels for the women's basketball tournament". ncaa.com. NCAA. March 15, 2026. Retrieved March 15, 2026.
- ^ Due to facilities conflicts with Missouri, Seton Hall will host the first round game.
- ^ Due to San Diego State hosting first and second round games of the NCAA men's tournament, University of San Diego will host the first round game.
- ^ Due to facilities conflicts with Utah, Eastern Kentucky will host the first round game.
- ^ Due to facilities conflicts with Wisconsin, Oregon State will host the first round game.