| |
NC A&T and Prairie View get WNIT bids
March 15, 2010
MEAC regular season champs NC A&T and SWAC regular season titlelist Prairie View A&M live to play another day with their selection to the 64-team field of the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).
This is the first year of the expanded Postseason WNIT, and the field includes 31 teams that earned automatic berths and 33 teams that earned at-large berths.
 The WNIT kicks off postseason action Wednesday with first-round games. All games are held on the campuses of participating schools. All 64 teams will play in the first round, featuring 32 games. That will be followed by 16 games in Round 2, eight third-round games, four quarterfinal games, two semifinal games, and the championship. The WNIT championship game will be played Saturday, April 3, and will be hosted by one of the two final participating schools.
Prairie View will begin play against Kansas at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17 in Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS.
NC A&T is set to face Wake Forest at 7 p.m., Thursday (3/18) at Reynolds Gymnasium on the campus of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.
The WNIT awards an automatic qualifying berth to each of the nation’s 31 conferences. The spot goes to the team that finishes the highest in the regular-season conference standings that does not advance to the NCAA Tournament. If there is a tie, the WNIT abides by the conference tiebreaker. A team earns the automatic qualifying berth regardless of its overall record. However, to be considered for a WNIT at-large berth, a team must have an overall record of .500 or better.
This year’s field features five teams each from the Big Ten, Big East, Atlantic 10, and Colonial Conferences. The Mountain West has four teams, and the Pac 10, Missouri Valley, Mid-American, Conference USA, and ACC have three each. Other conferences with more than one team in the field include: Big 12 (2), SEC (2), West Coast (2), and WAC (2).
|
