Selection Sunday is upon us. As we count down the hours until we find out what the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament will look like, bracketologists are scrambling to put together their final projections.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme updated his on Saturday morning, and included a critical change for Lady Vols basketball. While Tennessee remains a projected 8-seed, its host site has flipped across the country.
Initially, Creme had the Lady Vols going to Los Angeles to open the tournament on the home floor of UCLA. Now, he has Tennessee headed up the East Coast to play at UConn.
The selection committee looks to not have any regular-season rematches in the first two rounds of the tournament, but it may be unavoidable for the Lady Vols. If Tennessee is an 8 or 9-seed like it is projected, it’d go to a 1-seed’s home floor. Those options are almost certainly South Carolina, Texas, UCLA and UConn. However, UT already played and lost to each of those teams, and an SEC rematch is almost certainly off the table.
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In ESPN’s projection, Tennessee would open the field against 9-seed Virginia Tech. The winner of that game, played in Storrs, Connecticut, would then play the Huskies, barring a historic upset.
If the Lady Vols manage to make back-to-back Sweet 16s under Kim Caldwell, likely opponents are 4-seed North Carolina and 5-seed Maryland.
However, Tennessee enters the postseason on the heels of a seven-game losing skid. Despite the rough stretch, Caldwell was firm in her thoughts that the team deserved to play in the tournament.
“Yeah, I do,” Caldwell said after the loss in the SEC Tournament. “I think we’ve played the hardest schedule in the country. I think the majority of that came in February, but we have significant wins, and I think that – we hope to get in and continue to try to be a different team.”
Selection Sunday will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET on March 15.
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