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Autumn Johnson | February 4, 2026

2026 March Madness women's bracket predictions: Autumn Johnson's second NCAA tournament projections

Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd combine for 44 points in win

With March Madness inching closer, Autumn Johnson revealed her second NCAA women's basketball tournament bracket predictions of the season. UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina grabbed the No. 1 seeds.

Take a look at her predicted 68-team field below. 

RANKINGS: AP Top 25 Poll | Net Rankings

Seed REGIONAL 1 - FORT WORTH REGION 4 - SACRAMENTO REGION 2 - SACRAMENTO REGION 3 - FORT WORTH
1 UConn Texas UCLA South Carolina
16 Abilene Chrisitan/Navy Maryland Eastern / FDU Alabama A&M Chattanooga
8 Oregon Stanford Mississippi State Illinois
9 Oklahoma State Minnesota Notre Dame Syracuse
         
5 Duke Tennessee Texas Tech Princeton
12 Troy San Diego State Oregon State North Dakota State
4 Ole Miss Baylor Kentucky TCU
13 McNeese Green Bay UC San Diego Western Illinois
         
6 Maryland North Carolina West Virginia Alabama
11 Quinnipiac Rice Clemson / Villanova BYU / Virginia Tech
3 Ohio State Michigan State Oklahoma Iowa
14 Charleston High Point Miami(OH) Montana State
         
7 Georgia Washington NC State Nebraska
10 Rhode Island Utah Southern California Iowa State
2 Michigan Louisville Vanderbilt LSU
15 Murray State Binghamton LA Tech Eastern Kentucky

LAST FOUR IN:  Villanova, BYU, Virginia Tech, Clemson 
FIRST FOUR OUT: Arizona State, Virginia, Wisconsin, South Dakota State

Conferences with multiple teams in the bracket

Conference Total Teams Teams
Big Ten 12 Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oregon, UCLA, Southern Cal, Washington
SEC 11 Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vanderbilt
ACC 9 Clemson, Duke, Louisville, NC State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia Tech
Big 12 8 Baylor, BYU, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah, West Virginia
Big East 2 UConn, Villanova

MORE: What to know about the WAB metric in women's college basketball

Autumn Johnson's automatic qualifiers 

AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERS TEAMS
America East Binghamton
American Rice
ASUN Eastern Kentucky
Atlantic 10 Rhode Island
ACC Louisville 
Big 12 TCU
Big East UConn
Big Sky Montana State
Big South High Point
Big Ten UCLA 
Big West UC San Diego
CAA Charleston 
Conference USA LA Tech
Horizon Green Bay 
Ivy Princeton 
MAAC Quinnipiac 
MAC Miami (OH) 
MEAC MD Eastern
Missouri Valley Murray State
Mountain West San Diego State 
Northeast FDU
Ohio Valley Western Illinois
Patriot Navy
SEC South Carolina
Southern Chattanooga
Southland McNeese
SWAC Alabama A&M
Summit League North Dakota State
Sun Belt Troy
West Coast Oregon State
Western Athletic Conference Abilene Christian 
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