Stanford, UNC, Duke, S.C. claim No. 1 seeds in DI Championship

INDIANAPOLIS — The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 36th NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, was announced Monday afternoon by the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Committee.

The four No. 1 seeds include Stanford, the automatic qualifier out of the Pac-12 Conference, and North Carolina, the automatic qualifier from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke and South Carolina also earned No. 1 seeds. 

RELATED: Selection show | Interactive bracket | Printable bracket

Utah Valley, the automatic qualifier from the Western Athletic Conference, will face Stanford in the opening round.  North Carolina will host High Point from the Big South Conference. Duke will host The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from the Southern Conference and South Carolina will host Alabama State, the automatic qualifier from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

The No. 2 seeds include UCF, Texas A&M, UCLA and West Virginia. Capturing the No. 3 seeds are Penn State, Virginia, Florida and Southern California. Ohio State, Texas, Princeton and Florida State each earned a No. 4 seed to complete the top 16-seeded teams.

The Southeastern Conference led all conferences with nine teams in the tournament. The ACC followed with eight teams, the Pac-12 with six teams and the Big Ten Conference and Big 12 Conference will each have five representatives in this year's tournament.

Thirty-one conferences were granted automatic bids for the 2017 championship, while the remaining 33 teams were selected at-large. The top 16 teams are seeded and conference teams cannot play each other in the first or second rounds. When pairing teams, the committee follows geographic proximity parameters. The top 16 teams will host and all other sites were selected for the first round to create the least number of flights.

First-round games will be played Nov. 10, 11 and 12 at campus sites. Second-round games will be played Friday, Nov. 17 at campus sites and third-round games will be played Sunday, Nov. 19 at the same campus sites. Quarterfinal games will be played Nov. 24 or 25 also on campus sites.

The 36th annual NCAA Women's College Cup will be played Dec. 1 and 3 at Orlando City Soccer Stadium in Orlando, Florida with UCF and Central Florida Sports Commission serving as co-hosts. The first national semifinal will be played and broadcast live on ESPNU at 5 p.m. Eastern time Friday, Dec. 1. The second semifinal will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m. Eastern time live on ESPNU. The national championship match will take place at noon Eastern time Sunday, Dec. 3 and will also broadcast live on ESPNU.

CONFERENCES RECEIVING AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION (31):