NCAA announces 16 opening-weekend hosts for women’s tournament before the bracket reveal

Anticipated No. 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas were chosen as hosts for the first two rounds of the NCAA Women’s Tournament on Saturday.

For the first time, the NCAA revealed the 16 teams that will be hosting on opening weekend a day before the bracket is revealed. The list of schools was in alphabetical order.

Other hosts were Duke, Iowa, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma, TCU, Vanderbilt and West Virginia.

By announcing it a day early it gives schools an extra day to sell tickets, broadcast partner ESPN to start to move its equipment to the locations and the NCAA to get its marketing materials to sites. The NCAA has done this before in other sports such as baseball.

“There’s such a quick turnaround so if schools know that they’re going to be hosting, that allows them to start that process earlier,” NCAA vice president of women’s basketball Lynn Holzman said in an interview with The Associated Press a few weeks ago. “It helps us operate nationally as we have to get things moved throughout the country within about a 24, not even a 24-hour period.”

Holzman also feels that it can generate more excitement around the bracket reveal Sunday night.

The regional rounds will be played at two neutral sites for the fourth straight year. Fort Worth, Texas, will host half of the Sweet 16, and Sacramento, California, will host the other eight teams.

The Final Four will be played in Phoenix on April 3 and the NCAA championship game is two days later.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball