The Women's National Invitation Tournament announced its 48-team field on Sunday, setting the scene for Monday's 2026 Women's NIT bracket drop.

The Women's NIT bracket includes automatic bids for teams that finished second in their respective conference tournaments but failed to make either the NCAA Tournament or Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament.

This year's automatic berths are Abilene Christian (WAC), Alcorn State (SWAC), Florida International (Conference USA), Lamar (Southland), Mercyhurst (NEC), Montana State (Big Sky), Radford (Big South), Maryland Eastern Shore (MEAC), and Youngstown State (Horizon League).

"I'm very proud of this team and we're excited to continue playing," said Montana State head coach Tricia Binford.

"The resume this team put together is certainly deserving of post-season basketball. We finished 69th in the NET Ranking, had a Quad One win, and won 25 basketball games. I believe our best basketball remains in front of this team, and with no seniors on this team the post-season experience we gain will be valuable."

Additional programs headlining the Women's NIT field include Wake Forest from the ACC and Southern Indiana from the Ohio Valley Conference. Mid-major programs dominate the bracket, with strong representation from the Summit League, Horizon League, and Conference USA.

The WNIT has fallen in stature since the WBIT replaced it as the NCAA's second-tier postseason tournament in 2024, with the NIT now serving as the third option for teams seeking extended postseason play.

Organizers will reveal the full bracket with seeding and matchups on Monday, with the tournament set to tip off on March 19th before culminating in April 4th's championship.

Complete 2026 Women's NIT Field

As the 2024/25 NCAA basketball Selection Sunday looms, the Ivy League is tipping off its two-day conference tournament on Friday, with an automatic ticket to March Madness on the line in Saturday's championship game.

Compared to behemoths like the 18-team ACC and Big Ten, the small eight-school conference sent two squads to 2024 NCAA tournament, where Columbia fell in the First Four before West Virginia defeated Princeton in the first round.

This year, Ivy League No. 1-seed Columbia took the conference's outright regular-season title with a 13-1 league record, while the No. 2-seed Princeton Tigers and No. 3-seed Harvard Crimson also posted winning runs, following the Lions with respective 12-2 and 11-3 Ivy resumes.

Only half of the league's eight teams make the conference showdown, and the Penn Quakers eked out the No. 4-seed spot on a tiebreaker, clinching their sixth Ivy League tournament berth after finishing the season locked up with the Brown Bears.

Columbia's Fliss Henderson and Cecelia Collins box out Vanderbilt's Justine Pissott during their 2024 NCAA Tournament First Four game.
Ivy League top-seed Columbia are hunting their second-ever NCAA tournament appearance.(Ryan Hunt/Getty Images)

Columbia looks to stay atop Ivy League entering March Madness

Princeton has dominated the Ivy in recent years, earning 11 March Madness trips in the NCAA tournament's last 14 iterations and making two national second-round appearances behind now-UConn starter Kaitlyn Chen.

However, Columbia is the conference favorite this year, with the Lions taking aim at their second-ever NCAA tournament appearance.

Columbia's first March Madness trip came just last year, buoyed by the team's all-time leading scorer and the program's first-ever WNBA draftee, Connecticut Sun guard Abbey Hsu.

While the Lions are expected to take this weekend's title, booking a likely NCAA tournament No. 11 seed alongside the Ivy League's automatic bid, ESPN’s Bracketology currently has the conference fielding three teams in the national bracket — both Princeton and Harvard are predicted to snag one of the final four at-large spots on Sunday.

All in all, breaking into the outer margins of the NCAA tournament bracket is no small feat, but March Madness rests on the premise that even the smallest conferences can change the game with a single upset.

Harvard's Harmoni Turner defends Columbia's Fliss Henderson during a 2024 Ivy League tournament semifinal.
Along with Princeton, both Harvard and Columbia could make March Madness. (Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

How to watch the 2025 Ivy League conference tournament

No. 1-seed Columbia will tips off Friday's semifinals against No. 4 Penn at 4:30 PM ET, before No. 2 Princeton and No. 3 Harvard battle at 7:30 PM ET.

The winners will face-off for the conference title and the Ivy League's automatic March Madness bid on Saturday at 5:30 PM ET.

Both Friday semifinals will air live on ESPN+, with ESPNU broadcasting Saturday's championship game.