Ladies’s March Insanity brackets have to be submitted within the subsequent few days, so it’s time to determine who you assume will win the NCAA championship this yr. Making a bracket is all about balancing statistics/knowledge/information with intestine emotions and throwing in a number of twists alongside the way in which. Finally, it’s VERY exhausting to create even a near-perfect bracket, so have enjoyable with it!
Choosing upsets is very troublesome. It is advisable to steadiness your risk-taking, realizing that selections you make within the early rounds can have an effect on your complete bracket. Listed below are three upset picks to think about together with in your 2026 Ladies’s March Insanity bracket.
No. 11 Fairfield beats No. 6 Notre Dame (Spherical 1)
That is an extremely attention-grabbing matchup, particularly given the season Notre Dame has had. The Combating Irish misplaced a number of key gamers within the switch portal final spring, together with Olivia Miles, who’s predicted to be a WNBA lottery draft decide subsequent month. These losses discovered Notre Dame attempting to restructure, and the outcome was them falling out of the top-25 rankings. They’ve been out and in of the top-25 all yr, at the moment settled at No. 22.
Notre Dame misplaced the ACC event Championship to Duke, coming into March Insanity as a six-seed of their area and out of the top-16 within the bracket. Whereas Fairfield, the eleven-seed on this area, would be the underdogs, they’re coming off a MAAC event win, and the arrogance is unquestionably prepared to hold over into the event.
The factor with Notre Dame is that they often battle to get something going exterior of Hannah Hidalgo’s effort. If Fairfield can shut down Hidalgo, they’ve a shot of constructing this an attention-grabbing match-up.
No. 9 USC beats No. 8 Clemson (Spherical 1)
These No. 8/No. 9 matchups are exhausting to name true “upsets” because the seeding is so shut collectively, however these usually find yourself among the most enjoyable video games within the first spherical. They’re nice choices if you wish to throw a number of extra upset picks into your bracket.
Sadly, USC went from being a Last 4 lock final season to falling to a regional eight-seed this yr, as they are lacking Juju Watkins. Watkins was injured within the second spherical of final yr’s event, now recovering from ACL surgical procedure. Nonetheless, the Trojans have quite a bit to look ahead to, particularly with regards to their star freshman, Jazzy Davidson. Davidson leads USC in factors (17.6 per sport), rebounds (5.7 per sport), assists (4.2 per sport), steals (2.0 per sport), and blocks (2.0 per sport).
It will likely be attention-grabbing to see how Davidson performs in her first NCAA event, because the postseason has a manner of bringing out the perfect in nice gamers.
No. 10 Tennessee beats No.7 NC State (Spherical 1)
This match-up is extremely attention-grabbing. Each NC State and Tennessee had excessive expectations coming into this season, and each have expereinced a little bit of disappointment. These No. 7 and No. 10 seeds are in all probability not the place both program needed to be at this level within the season, however it is a time to show what your staff is made from.
Tennessee has had a little bit of a tough go this season with accidents and locker room points. They’ve had gamers step away from the staff, they’ve needed to self-discipline gamers, and all of it’s inflicting disappointing outcomes on the ground. What higher technique to show to the naysayers that issues are going to be okay than profitable an NCAA event sport because the underdog? It will likely be a check for coach Kim Caldwell, for certain.
However, NC State scored large once they obtained Khamil Pierre out of the switch portal final summer time, and he or she shall be an enormous issue of their success. She leads the Wolfpack in factors (16.8 per sport) and rebounds (12.0 per sport), and has expertise being on an underdog staff. This one is a must-watch in spherical one.
