Updated April 2026
This page will describe the steps the NCAA goes through over the course of the season leading up to selecting at-large teams, seeding, and forming the bracket for the NCAA Tournament.
WOMEN'S SOCCER COMMITTEE
The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Committee is a subset of the members of the Division I Women's Soccer Oversight Committee. The Women's Soccer Committee is responsible for selecting teams to fill "at large" positions in the Division I Tournament bracket, for seeding teams, for forming the bracket, and for selecting game sites. The Committee has 10 members. The Committee membership consists of:
One member from each of the following conferences: ACC, Big 10, Big 12, and SEC
Three members from the 5 highest ranked conferences other than the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, and SEC
Three members from the remaining conferences
At least half the Committee members must be athletics administrators. Members serve four-year terms, with September as the beginning month of each year of service. A member may be re-appointed to the Committee if there has been at least a three-year gap since expiration of the member's previous term of service. No person may serve more than two terms on the Committee.
Committee members as of April 2026 are:
Jackie Wallgren, Chair, Administrator, Akron/MidAmerican (from Remaining Conferences)
Samar Azem, Head Coach, Villanova/Big East (from Highest Ranked Nonautonomy Conferences)
Nathan Fry, Administrator, Harvard/Ivy League (from Highest Ranked Nonautonomy Conferences)
Ryan Higginbotham, Associate Coach, TCU/Big Twelve (from Autonomy Conferences)
Janet Oberle, Administrator, Saint Louis/Atlantic Ten (from Remaining Conferences)
Todd Plourde, Head Coach, Iona/Metro Atlantic (from Remaining Conferences)
Eddie Radwanski, Head Coach, Clemson/ACC (from Autonomy Conferences)
Stephanie Ransom, Administrator, Georgia/SEC (from Autonomy Conferences)
Thad Satre, Administrator, Loyola Marymount/West Coast (from Highest Ranked Nonautonomy Conferences)
Brandi Stuart, Administrator, Penn State/Big Ten (from Autonomy Conferences)
In addition, there is a Regional Advisory Committee for each of five geographic regions, appointed by Committee members from the regions.
GAME SCORE REPORTING SYSTEM
The NCAA statistics group manages the NCAA's game results collection system, including generating reports including RPI ratings and other information the Committee considers in the NCAA Tournament at large selection, seeding, and bracket formation process. Schools upload their schedules to the NCAA statistics system before the season begins. Once the season begins, schools enter game statistics, incuding results, into the statistics system daily, in most cases immediately after completion of the games. The game results then go into the RPI database, resulting in daily updates to the RPI. The deadline for uploading game results on the last day of the season is 6:00 pm Eastern time.
After the fifth weekend of the season, the NCAA publicly releases RPI reports daily.
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Once the season is well underway, the Women's Soccer Committee and advisory committees have bi-weekly conference-call meetings. For each bi-weekly period, the advisory committees meet on Wednesday and the Women's Soccer Committee meets on Thursday.
Each Regional Advisory Committee prepares a national ranking of teams. It ranks a top 15 in its first meeting, a top 30 in its second and subsequent meetings. and a top 45 in its last meeting, which precedes NCAA Tournament selection weekend. For conferences that do not have teams within a RAC's ranking group, the RAC identifies the conferences' top teams and indicates where the RAC believes those teams fit on a national scale.
Having the RACs rank the top 45 teams nationally in their final meeting before selection weekend makes sense, since the top 45 will include teams that are NCAA Tournament automatic qualifiers as well as teams that are candidates for at large positions. Assuming the RACs will not all have the same top 45 teams, this will give the Committee a list of perhaps 50 to 60 teams in the RACs' combined list. Historically, all NCAA Tournament at large teams have come from the NCAA RPI's Top 57. Also historically, the Top 57 have included 11 to 17 automatic qualifiers, with an average just above 14. So if the RACs' combined list were to include 14 automatic qualifiers, it would give the Committee in the vicinity of 35 to 45 non-automatic qualifiers as a starting point for at large selections, with the Committee of course being able to add teams if it believes the RACs as a group have missed some.
The likely schedule for the 2026 Women's Soccer Committee and Regional Advisory Committee meetings is as follows:
Wednesday, September 16: Regional Advisory Committees
Thursday, September 17: Women's Soccer Committee
Wednesday, September 30: Regional Advisory Committees
Thursday, October 1: Women's Soccer Committee
Wednesday, October 14 Regional Advisory Committees
Thursday, October 15: Women's Soccer Committee
Wednesday, October 28: Regional Advisory Committees
Thursday, October 29: Women's Soccer Committee
Wednesday, November 11: Regional Advisory Committees, optional
The 2026 schedule for the final bracket formation decisions and the Tournament itself will be as follows:
Saturday/Monday, November 14-16: Women's Soccer Committee meeting. This is not a conference call meeting, but rather is an in-person meeting in Indianapolis, site of the NCAA's national office. Committee members arrive on Friday or Saturday and meet on Saturday through Monday until the bracket formation process is completed and the bracket announced.
Monday, November 16, 1:00 pm ET, streamed on NCAA.com: Public announcement of Tournament Bracket
Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 22: First round games
Thursday, November 26: Second round games
Sunday, November 29: Third round games
Friday, December 4 to Saturday, December 5: Quarter-finals
Thursday, December 10: College Cup Semi-Finals, Wake Med Soccer Park, Cary, North Carolina
Sunday, December 13: College Cup Finals, Wake Med Soccer Park, Cary, North Carolina
RPI PUBLICATION DATES
The NCAA publishes its interim RPI rankings (but not the detailed rating numbers from which it derives the rankings), at the NCAA.com website, starting on the Monday following the fifth weekend of the season. Thus the first 2025 RPI publication date is Monday, September 14.
In addition, the NCAA starting with Moday following the fifth weekend of the season, publishes detailed RPI reports daily. These include ratings as well as rankings and various other team data breakdowns. They are accessible at the NCAA's RPI Archive.
Once the last of the regular season games, including conference tournament games, are completed, the NCAA produces "Selection" reports. These are the final reports that the Women's Soccer Committee uses in making its at large selection and seeding decisions. These reports are available at the RPI Archive on Bracket Monday. In addition, after the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA will issue "Final" reports that include results from the NCAA Tournament games. In addition, as soon as the regular season (including conference tournaments) is over, final rankings and ratings that should be identical to the "Selection" rankings and ratings also will be available at the College Women's Soccer Schedule webpages and I will publish them at the RPI and Bracketology for DI Women's Soccer Blogspace.