When it comes to March Madness on the men's side of college basketball, we know that teams that don't make the field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament still have the option of heading to the NIT. But don't overlook the teams that miss out on Women's March Madness as they'll also still have a chance for their own postseason run in the Women's NIT.
The WNIT often provides some fireworks that we may not even see on the men's side. One of the best things that the WNIT offers that we don't see on the men's side is automatic qualification for regular-season conference champs, which guarantees that some high-quality teams who just simply didn't have a good week in the conference tournament will get to play in the postseason and provide fans with a few more weeks of excitement as well.
With the fields of 68 being revealed on Selection Sunday, let's take a look at one of the hidden gems of women's college basketball with the WNIT bracket and what you need to know to watch the tournament throughout the rest of March.
WNIT bracket: Printable version for the 2025 tournament
For the printable version of the Women's NIT bracket, fans can simply just click on the image above, which will then take them to a PDF version of the bracket and allow WNIT viewers to get their brackets and then print it out.
We will update the WNIT bracket after the full reveal on Monday, March 17. Teams will be announced on Sunday, March 16.
Women's NIT schedule for 2025 tournament
Here's a look at the full 2025 WNIT schedule:
WNIT Round | Date |
|---|---|
First Round | Thursday, March 20 |
Second Round | Sunday, March 23 |
Super 16 | Wednesday, March 26 |
Great 8 | Saturday, March 29 |
Fab 4 | Tuesday, April 1 |
Championship | Saturday, April 5 |
The first round of the Women's NIT will get underway on Thursday, March 20 just after the conclusion of the men's and women's regular seasons the previous Sunday with two rounds being played each week until the championship matchup in Fort Collins, CO on Saturday, April 5. Other games will be hosted at on-site venues at various campuses.
Broadcast info
CBS Sports Network holds the broadcasting rights for the Women's NIT and will broadcast select games throughout each round. That is also where you'll be able to find the WNIT Championship Game on April 5 as well.
WNIT automatic qualifiers
One idiosyncrasy of the Women's NIT is that regular-season conference champions or co-champs who did not get an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament via the conference tourney automatically qualify. Here are the 10 teams who have already punched their ticket to the WNIT.
Team | Record | Conference |
|---|---|---|
Army | 24-7 | Patriot |
Bryant | 17-14 | America East |
Central Arkansas | 23-9 | Atlantic Sun |
Howard | 21-11 | MEAC |
Lindenwood | 21-10 | Ohio Valley |
Longwood | 22-11 | Big South |
Stonehill | 17-14 | Northeast |
Tarleton State | 20-13 | WAC |
Texas Southern | 16-15 | SWAC |
Troy | 20-13 | Sun Belt |
Obviously, there aren't any power conference teams listed for the WNIT that won their regular season championship. That's because they are still bound for the Women's NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, the rest of the field in the Women's NIT will be populated by invites that are accepted to teams left out of the field of 68, both from mid-majors and power conferences alike.