INDIANAPOLIS—The NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Committee has announced the 64-team field for the 2026 NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship. North Atlantic Conference (NAC) champion UMaine-Farmington (21-7) will face two-time defending champions No. 1 New York University (NYU) (25-0) in a first-round matchup at John A. Paulson Center in New York, NY. on Friday, March 6. Tip-off is to be determined.

The championship features a 64-team tournament, with 43 conference champions earning automatic qualification (AQ). The remaining 21 teams receive at-large bids from conferences with automatic qualifiers. Teams are geographically paired whenever possible.

The Beavers secured their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2007 by defeating Maine Maritime Academy, 70-58, in the NAC Championship on Saturday in Castine.
NYU, the 2024 and 2025 NCAA Division III Champions, will be making its fifth consecutive return to the national tournament. The Violets – winners of five straight University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships – will serve as one of 16 NCAA pod hosts. Two-time MAC Commonwealth champion Messiah (23-4) and SUNYAC at-large bid SUNY Cortland (23-4) play in the other first-round matchup in New York.

Sixteen first/second-round sites will be conducted March 6-7.  Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites March 13-14. Winners of the four sectional sites will advance to the national semifinals/final site on March 19 and 21. All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. The semifinals/final will be conducted at Cregger Center in Salem, Virginia, hosted by City of Salem and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.