2020 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

Last updated

2020 NCAA Division I
women's basketball tournament
2020 NCAA Women's Final Four logo.svg
Season 201920
Teams64 (planned)
Finals site Smoothie King Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
Canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
NCAA Division I women's tournaments
« 2019 2021 »

The 2020 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was scheduled to be played in March and April 2020, with the Final Four played Friday, April 3 and Sunday, April 5 to determine the champion of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Final Four was planned to be played at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the University of New Orleans, Tulane University and the Sun Belt Conference serving as hosts. This is the fourth time that New Orleans has been selected as a women's Final Four location (previously, in 1991, 2004, and 2013) and third time at the Smoothie King Center (previously named New Orleans Arena); the 1991 Final Four was contested at the University of New Orleans' Lakefront Arena. ESPN had planned to nationally televise all 63 games of the women's tournament for the first time ever. [1]

Contents

However, on March 12, the NCAA announced that this tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] It was the first time the tournament had been canceled since its creation in 1982.

Tournament procedure

Pending any changes to the format, a total of 64 teams will enter the 2020 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 32 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[ citation needed ]. 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).

The selection committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 64.

2020 NCAA tournament schedule and venues

Usa edcp location map.svg
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Dallas
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Fort Wayne
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Greenville
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Portland
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New Orleans
2020 NCAA regionals and Final Four

The first two rounds, also referred to as the subregionals, were to be played at the sites of the top 16 seeds, as was done from 1995 to 2004 and since 2016.

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)

Coronavirus impact

On March 11, 2020, the NCAA announced that both men's and women's NCAA Tournaments would take place without fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. [9] This was followed up, on March 12, by an announcement cancelling the tournaments. [2]

Subregionals tournament and automatic qualifiers

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams had automatically qualified for the 2020 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament. All conference tournaments that had not been completed were cancelled, the majority of which without naming an automatic qualifier.

Teams marked with † received automatic bids after their conference tournaments were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
ConferenceTeamRecordAppearanceLast bid
ACC NC State 28–426th2019
America East Stony Brook [10] 28–31stNever
American UConn 29–332nd2019
Atlantic 10 Dayton25–89th2018
Atlantic Sun Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Big 12 Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Big East DePaul28–525th2019
Big Sky Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Big South Campbell † [11] 21-82nd2000
Big Ten Maryland 28–428th2019
Big West Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Colonial Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
C-USA Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Horizon IUPUI23–81stNever
Ivy League Princeton † [12] 26–19th2019
MAAC Rider † [13] 26-41stNever
MAC Central Michigan † [14] 23-76th2019
MEAC Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Missouri Valley Tournament cancelled, no automatic bid
Mountain West Boise State 24–97th2019
Northeast Robert Morris † [15] 23-77th2019
Ohio Valley Southeast Missouri State25–73rd2007
Pac-12 Oregon 31–216th2019
Patriot Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
SEC South Carolina 32–117th2019
Southern Samford 18–143rd2012
Southland Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
SWAC Tournament canceled, no automatic bid
Summit League South Dakota 30–23rd2019
Sun Belt Troy [16] 25–44th2017
West Coast Portland 21–115th1997
WAC Kansas City [17] 21-101stNever
Notes
  1. Moody Coliseum is physically located in University Park, Texas, a city contained within the city limits of Dallas. All locations within University Park have a Dallas mailing address.
  2. At the time the regional venues were announced, the host institution was Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). In July 2018, IPFW was dissolved and replaced by separate institutions affiliated with Indiana University and Purdue University. Since the IPFW athletic program was transferred to the newly launched Purdue University Fort Wayne, that institution inherited hosting duties.

See also

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References

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