| Gender: | Women's |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Teams: | 64 |
| Finalfourarena: | Amalie Arena |
| Finalfourcity: | Tampa, Florida |
| Champions: | Baylor Lady Bears |
| Titlecount: | 3rd |
| Champgamecount: | 3rd |
| Champffcount: | 4th |
| Runnerup: | Notre Dame Fighting Irish |
| Gamecount: | 7th |
| Runnerffcount: | 9th |
| Semifinal1: | UConn Huskies |
| Finalfourcount: | 20th |
| Semifinal2: | Oregon Ducks |
| Finalfourcount2: | 1st |
| Coach: | Kim Mulkey |
| Coachcount: | 3rd |
| Mop: | Chloe Jackson |
| Mopteam: | Baylor |
The 2019 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 teams to determine the national champion for the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 38th annual edition of the tournament began on March 22, and concluded with the championship game on April 7 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, with the University of South Florida serving as host. The tournament field was announced on March 18.
Three schools, Colonial champion Towson, MEAC champion Bethune–Cookman and Southland champion Abilene Christian, made their first appearance in the tournament. Meanwhile, Tennessee continued its record streak of making every NCAA women's basketball tournament at 38 consecutive appearances. UConn also continued its record streak of 12 consecutive Final Four appearances.
Pending any changes to the format, a total of 64 teams will enter the 2019 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 36 bids are "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible. The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc. (meaning where the two seeds add up to 17, that team will be assigned to play another).
The selection committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 64.
The first two rounds, also referred to as the subregionals, were played at the sites of the top 16 seeds, as was done since 2015. However, the subregional that would otherwise have been hosted by South Carolina was moved to Charlotte, North Carolina due to the Gamecocks' home, Colonial Life Arena, being used for the men's tournament.
Subregionals (first and second rounds)
Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)
This is the third time that the women's Final Four was played in Tampa (previously, in 2008 and 2015).[7]
The following teams automatically qualified for the 2019 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.
| Conference | Team | Record | Appearance | Last bid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | Notre Dame | 30–3 | 26th | 2018 | |
| America East | Maine | 25–7 | 9th | 2018 | |
| American | 31–2 | 31st | 2018 | ||
| Atlantic 10 | 25–8 | 3rd | 2014 | ||
| ASUN | 27–4 | 6th | 2018 | ||
| Big 12 | Baylor | 31–1 | 18th | 2018 | |
| Big East | 25–7 | 24th | 2018 | ||
| Big Sky | Portland State | 25–7 | 2nd | 2010 | |
| Big South | Radford | 25–6 | 4th | 1996 | |
| Big Ten | Iowa | 26–6 | 26th | 2018 | |
| Big West | UC Davis | 25–6 | 2nd | 2011 | |
| Colonial | 20–12 | 1st | Never | ||
| C-USA | 28–3 | 3rd | 2005 | ||
| Horizon | Wright State | 27–6 | 2nd | 2014 | |
| Ivy League | Princeton | 22–9 | 8th | 2018 | |
| MAAC | Quinnipiac | 26–6 | 5th | 2018 | |
| MAC | Buffalo | 23–9 | 3rd | 2018 | |
| MEAC | Bethune–Cookman | 21–10 | 1st | Never | |
| Missouri Valley | Missouri State | 23–9 | 15th | 2016 | |
| Mountain West | 28–4 | 6th | 2018 | ||
| Northeast | Robert Morris | 22–10 | 6th | 2017 | |
| Ohio Valley | Belmont | 26–6 | 5th | 2018 | |
| Pac-12 | Stanford | 28–4 | 33rd | 2018 | |
| Patriot | Bucknell | 28–5 | 4th | 2017 | |
| SEC | Mississippi State | 30–2 | 11th | 2018 | |
| Southern | 25–7 | 2nd | 2018 | ||
| Southland | Abilene Christian | 23–9 | 1st | Never | |
| SWAC | Southern | 20–12 | 5th | 2010 | |
| Summit League | 26–6 | 9th | 2018 | ||
| Sun Belt | Little Rock | 21–10 | 6th | 2018 | |
| West Coast | 25–6 | 13th | 2016 | ||
| WAC | New Mexico State | 26-6 | 6th | 2017 |
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All times are listed as Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
* – Denotes overtime period
* – Denotes overtime period
* – Denotes overtime period
* – Denotes overtime period
During the Final Four round, regardless of the seeds of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region (Baylor's Greensboro Region) plays against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region (Mississippi State's Portland Region), and the champion of the second overall top seed's region (Notre Dame's Chicago Region) plays against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region (Louisville's Albany Region).
See main article: article.
| Conference | Bids | Record | Win % | R64 | R32 | S16 | E8 | F4 | CG | NC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big 12 | 4 | 7–3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| ACC | 8 | 14–8 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| American | 2 | 4–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Pac-12 | 6 | 14–6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Big Ten | 6 | 7–6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| SEC | 7 | 9–7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | |||||
| Missouri Valley | 2 | 2–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Summit League | 2 | 2–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Big East | 2 | 1–2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| Mid-American | 2 | 1–2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| WCC | 2 | 2–2 | 2 | 2 |
The tournament was covered by ESPN's networks. During the first and second rounds, ESPN aired select games nationally on ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNews. All other games aired regionally on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN3 and were streamed online via WatchESPN. Most of the nation got whip-a-round coverage during this time, which allowed ESPN to rotate between the games and focus the nation on the game that had the closest score. Over the course of rebroadcasting a studio program discussing the men's tournament, ESPNU accidentally displayed on-screen graphics prematurely revealing the tournament bracket prior to its formal unveiling that evening. The NCAA officially released the brackets two hours earlier than scheduled.[9] Some watch parties for schools scheduled with the bracket reveal were cancelled, and ESPN apologized for the error.[10]
First & second rounds Friday/Sunday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Friday/Sunday
Final Four
First & second rounds Saturday/Monday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Saturday/Monday
Championship
Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.[11] [12] Teams participating in the Regional finals, Final Four, and Championship were allowed to have their own local broadcasts, but they weren’t allowed to stream those broadcasts online.
Regional finals Sunday
Final Four
Regional finals Monday
Championship