2021 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament
The 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, barring potential disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be played in March and April 2021, with the Final Four played Friday, April 2 and Sunday, April 4. The Final Four will be played at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas with the University of the Incarnate Word, University of Texas at San Antonio and San Antonio Sports serving as hosts. This is the third time the women's Final Four will be played in San Antonio (previously, in 2002 and 2010).
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| Teams | 64 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | Alamodome San Antonio, Texas | ||||
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Assuming that the tournament is held, it will be the first since 1983 in which the RPI will not be used in the selection process. On May 4, 2020, the NCAA announced that it would replace the RPI with the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool), a metric that has been used in the selection process for the D-I men's tournament since 2019. The women's version of the NET uses input data specific to the women's game, but is otherwise functionally identical to the men's version.[1]
2021 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 in 2016–2020.
Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
- March 26–29[2]
- Albany Regional, Times Union Center, Albany, New York
- Austin Regional, H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Cedar Park, Texas (host: University of Texas)[3][4]
- Cincinnati Regional, Cintas Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (hosts: Xavier University and Cincinnati USA Sports Commission)[5]
- Spokane Regional, Spokane Arena, Spokane, Washington
National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)
- April 2 and April 4
- Alamodome San Antonio, Texas (Hosts: University of the Incarnate Word, University of Texas at San Antonio and San Antonio Sports)[6]
References
- Voepel, Mechelle (May 4, 2020). "Women's Div. I hoop switching from RPI to NET to assess teams". ESPN.com. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- "Women's regional sites announced for '21-22". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
- "Texas selected to host 2021 NCAA women's basketball tournament regional at Cedar Park". San Antonio Express-News. 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
- "UT selected as host of 2021 NCAA Women's Basketball Regional in Cedar Park - Texas Athletics". Texas Athletics. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
- "Xavier's Cintas Center awarded 2021 women's NCAA Tournament regional games". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
- smeyers@ncaa.org (2018-09-24). "4 cities chosen as future NCAA Women's Final Four hosts". NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA. Retrieved 2018-10-02.