2014 Women's Bracket Projection

There are a couple of things about this year's women's tournament that we know.  UConn and Notre Dame are going to be the top two overall seeds.  That's what happens when you have two teams that reached the Final Four last season (one of which won the title) that are both undefeated at the end of the regular season.  Then there's Louisville, which lost to UConn in the National Championship Game and has only three losses this season, two of which were to UConn.  As for the fourth No. 1 seed, that's probably Stanford.

OK, so, that was the easy part.  The rest of the women's bracket is pretty tough.  The extra automatic bid for the American takes away an at-large, and there are a ton of teams worthy an at-large that are going to end up in the WNIT.  In fact, they could easily expand the women's tournament to the 68 teams the men have and not have a problem finding four more worthy teams.  The overall quality of the field is going to be very, very good.

They also changed the regionals this year.  In the past, the regionals were held at neutral sites.  This year, they're on campus, which is a huge advantage for Notre Dame, Louisville and Stanford, who'll both be hosting Regionals.  It also means UConn's going to have to beat Nebraska on the road to get back to the Final Four.  That shouldn't be a problem, but the best team in the country also shouldn't have to play a road game with a berth in the Final Four at stake.  Fortunately, it's only going to be a one-year move before the return of neutral site regionals in 2015.

Anyway, keeping all those things in mind, I was still able to construct a bracket.  Here it is...

LINCOLN
Storrs: (16) Robert Morris at (1) Connecticut, (8) Vanderbilt vs. (9) St. John's
Chapel Hill: (13) Iona at (4) North Carolina, (5) Michigan State vs. (12) Florida Gulf Coast
Seattle: (3) Nebraska vs. (14) Western Kentucky, (6) Gonzaga vs. (11) South Dakota State
Waco: (7) Arizona State vs. (10) Florida, (15) Penn at (2) Baylor

LOUISVILLE
Ames: (1) Louisville vs. (16) Texas Southern, (8) Georgia Tech at (9) Iowa State
Lexington: (13) Albany at (4) Kentucky, (5) Dayton vs. (12) Chattanooga
Durham: (14) Southern Miss at (3) Duke, (6) Oklahoma State vs. (11) James Madison
Iowa City: (10) Fordham at (7) Iowa, (2) South Carolina vs. (15) Hampton

SOUTH BEND
Toledo: (1) Notre Dame vs. (16) Lamar, (8) Saint Joseph's vs. (9) Georgia
West Lafayette: (13) Northern Iowa at (4) Purdue, (5) California vs. (12) Green Bay
University Park: (14) Army at (3) Penn State, (6) NC State vs. (11) Bowling Green
Knoxville: (7) Middle Tennessee vs. (10) Creighton, (15) UT Martin at (2) Tennessee

STANFORD
Los Angeles: (1) Stanford vs. (16) Cal Poly, (8) Syracuse vs. (9) BYU
College Station: (13) North Dakota at (4) Texas A&M, (5) Texas vs. (12) Colorado State
College Park: (14) Liberty at (3) Maryland, (6) DePaul vs. (11) Minnesota
Baton Rouge: (7) Rutgers at (10) LSU, (2) West Virginia vs. (15) Idaho

Final Four: Lincoln vs. Louisville, South Bend vs. Stanford

Multi-bid conferences: SEC (8), ACC (7), Big Ten (6), Big 12 (5), American (3), Atlantic 10 (3), Big East (3), Pac-12 (3), Conference USA (2), West Coast (2)