The 2026 NCAA field hockey tournament has locked its championship field. The DI committee revealed its 18-team 2026 field hockey bracket on Sunday, with Northwestern claiming this season's No. 1 overall seed.
Northwestern Tops DI Field Hockey Championship Bracket
Northwestern secured the top overall seed after a dominant 18-2 season, capped by a Big Ten title win over Maryland. The Wildcats will aim to turn that form into a deep tournament run, riding their No. 1 billing into a 2026 DI field hockey bracket stacked with Ivy League, Big Ten, and ACC contenders.
Maryland (18-2) settled for the No. 2 seed, followed by fellow Big Ten titan No. 7 Iowa. The Ivy League placed three teams, as Harvard took third followed by No. 5 seed Princeton and No. 6 seed Yale. No. 8 North Carolina alongside represents the storied ACC alongside Syracuse and Duke.
No. 4 UConn plus unseeded Massachusetts, Lafayette, Old Dominion, and Miami (OH) round out a deep championship bracket spanning automatic qualifiers and at-large picks. Meanwhile, the DI committee tapped Saint Joseph's, Vermont, Fairfield, and Wagner to compete in the opening-round play-in.
2026 NCAA Field Hockey Tournament Schedule Kicks Off
The NCAA field hockey tournament kicks off with opening-round games on November 11th. First- and second-round action follows on November 13th and 15th, with top seeds like Northwestern hosting campus pods in Evanston.
Later, the semifinals and final shift to Trager Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. The national semifinals are set for November 20th, with the championship on November 22nd.
