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Autumn Johnson | January 22, 2022

2022 NCAA women's basketball tournament bracket predictions, 50 days to selections

2022 March Madness women's bracket predictions, 50 days to Selection Sunday

We are 50 days away from Selection Sunday — the day women's college basketball teams find out their fate in March Madness. 

I predicted my third field of 68, which includes my automatic qualifiers for each conference, and then filled in the rest with my at-large bids. I took into consideration what we've seen so far, but keep in mind things could still shake up as we're now in the thick of conference play with more non-conference marquee matchups to come. 

Here's my bracket in table format:

Autumn Johnson's third 2022 NCAA women's basketball tournament bracket prediction

SEED GREENSBORO Spokane Bridgeport Wichita
1 South Carolina Stanford  NC State Tennessee
16 Fairleigh Dickinson/Campbell Jackson State Texas A&M-Corpus Christi/ Howard Troy 
         
8 South Florida Missouri State UCF Kansas State
9 Arkansas Kentucky  Missouri  DePaul
         
5 North Carolina Notre Dame  Oklahoma Iowa
12 Princeton  Dayton  South Dakota Stephen F. Austin
         
4 Georgia Tech  Baylor  BYU  Texas
13 Toledo Youngstown State Drexel  Belmont
         
6 Ohio State Nebraska  Maryland  Florida Gulf Coast 
11 Oregon State/ Liberty  Gonzaga  Boston College/ Texas A&M  Northwestern
         
3 Arizona UConn Iowa State Georgia
14 New Mexico  Western Kentucky  Stony Brook Long Beach State
         
7 Duke  Virginia Tech Oregon Ole Miss
10 Creighton Utah  Kansas Colorado 
         
2 Indiana LSU  Michigan  Louisville 
15 Fairfield  Mercer  Boston College Idaho State

FIELD OF 68: Expansion of 2022 DI women’s basketball tournament to 68 teams approved

Tennessee breaks into No. 1 line 

As of right now, the Lady Vols deserve to be a No. 1 seed after opening up the season with a 17-1 record, which includes wins over tough non-conference foes South Florida, UCF, Texas, Virginia Tech and now breezing pass SEC foes.

Tennessee opened up its season with a nine-game winning streak up until Stanford, the national defending champs, snapped its flawless record. Despite the outcome, Tennessee controlled majority of the ball game and only fell by single-digits.

Tennessee is staring at one of its best seasons since the Vols started the 2007-08 campaign at 22-1. The 6-0 league beginning is Tennessee's best since going 13-0 in 2014-15.

Louisville falls

I had Louisville as one of my No. 1 seeds in my second bracket prediction, but the Cards recently took a tough hit in a major comeback from ACC foe NC State, who's featured on my one line.

Despite the loss, the No. 6 defense in the nation is still a Final Four contender. The Cards are currently 15-2, with its other loss coming to Arizona earlier this season. However, Louisville can add victories over Michigan, Kentucky, UConn and Georgia Tech to its resume. 

DARK-HORSES: 11 women's basketball dark-horse teams that could shake up March Madness

Last four in 

  1. Liberty 
  2. Boston College
  3. Texas A&M 
  4. Oregon State

First four out 

  1. Mississippi State
  2. UCLA 
  3. Florida State
  4. Purdue

In case you missed it, here is a link to my second bracket of this season.

The automatic qualifiers

Here are my 32 AQs, based off of who I think will lock in spots by everlasting foes in each respective conference tournament. 

Conference Automatic qualifier
America East Stony Brook
American Athletic UCF
Atlantic 10 Dayton
ACC NC State
ASUN Florida Gulf Coast
Big 12 Iowa State
Big East UConn
Big Sky Idaho State
Big South Campbell
Big Ten Indiana
Big West Long Beach State
Colonial Athletic Association Drexel
Conference USA Western Kentucky
Horizon  Youngstown State
Ivy Princeton
MAAC Fairfield
MAC Toledo
MEAC Howard
Missouri Valley Missouri State
Mountain West New Mexico
Northeast Fairleigh Dickinson
Ohio Valley Belmont 
Pac-12 Stanford
Patriot Boston University
SEC South Carolina
Southern Mercer 
Southland Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
SWAC Jackson State
Summit League South Dakota 
Sun Belt  Troy
West Coast  BYU
Western Athletic Conference Stephen F. Austin

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