NCAA Women’s Soccer Division 1 Tournament: Complete schedule, bracket, results, TV & streaming

The 2021 NCAA Women’s Division I soccer tournament bracket is set and the field of 64 teams will be whittled down to two finalists ahead of the Dec. 5 title match. A tournament committee formulated a final bracket consisting of 31 Division I conference champions, which all claimed automatic bids, along with another 33 at-large selections (watch the selection show here). Criteria for selection are outlined in the official guidelines.

Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament which attaches a seed to every team, only four teams in each quadrant of the bracket were assigned a seed: 

• No. 1 seeds: Florida State, Duke, Rutgers, Virginia
• No. 2 seeds: Michigan, UCLA, Arkansas, North Carolina
• No. 3 seeds: Tennessee, Georgetown, Notre Dame, USC
• No. 4 seeds: Pepperdine, Auburn, TCU, BYU

The marquee match of the first round will see a battle of the last two NCAA champions in NoCal where Santa Clara hosts Stanford. Neither team was seeded, and the geographic considerations come into play during the early rounds, leading to that heavyweight pairing.

DOWNLOAD: PDF of women’s tournament bracket

Defending champ Santa Clara will be motivated by the fact that it will also be hosting the semifinals and final of the tournament, known as “College Cup.” The 2021 champion will be crowned only a few months after the Broncos won the 2020 edition given that event was pushed into 2021 (May) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Florida State lost that final to Santa Clara on penalty kicks, and will be eager to finish the job this time.

Another California-based team, UCLA, is the lone unbeaten team in Division I, but it only landed a No. 2 seed with the RPI a factor. Among the other top-seeded contenders, Rutgers is coming off a strong season despite losing the Big Ten championship game to Michigan, and Duke and Virginia will hope this is the year they win a title after previous failed trips to the final. A surprise run could come from the likes of a BYU, the top-scoring team in the nation.

• First Round: Nov. 12-14
• Second Round: Nov. 19
• Round of 16: Nov. 21
• Quarterfinals: Nov. 26-28
• Semifinals: Dec. 3
• Final: Dec. 5

If matches are tied after 90 minutes, two 10-minute periods of sudden-death overtime are played. If the match is still deadlocked, a penalty-kick shootout will decide the winner.

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Home teams are listed first in the schedule below. Per NCAA rules, seeded teams will host through the quarterfinals unless the school did not submit a bid to host, or its facilities do not meet requirements. At that point, the committee will decide on the host. If two seeded teams face off, the higher seed hosts.

First Round (Round of 64)

Second Round (Round of 32)

Third Round (Round of 16)

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

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NCAA Division 1 women’s soccer tournament teams

NCAA Division I women’s tournament teams by conference