Women’s March Madness: 3 upset picks for your bracket

Women’s March Madness brackets need to be submitted in the next few days, so it’s time to figure out who you think will win the NCAA championship this year. Creating a bracket is all about balancing statistics/data/knowledge with gut feelings and throwing in a few twists along the way. Ultimately, it’s VERY hard to create even a near-perfect bracket, so have fun with it!

Picking upsets is especially difficult. You need to balance your risk-taking, knowing that decisions you make in the early rounds can affect your entire bracket. Here are three upset picks to consider including in your 2026 Women’s March Madness bracket.

No. 11 Fairfield beats No. 6 Notre Dame (Round 1)

This is an incredibly interesting matchup, especially given the season Notre Dame has had. The Fighting Irish lost a few key players in the transfer portal last spring, including Olivia Miles, who is predicted to be a WNBA lottery draft pick next month. These losses found Notre Dame trying to restructure, and the result was them falling out of the top-25 rankings. They’ve been in and out of the top-25 all year, currently settled at No. 22.

Notre Dame lost the ACC tournament Championship to Duke, coming into March Madness as a six-seed in their region and out of the top-16 in the bracket. While Fairfield, the eleven-seed in this region, will be the underdogs, they are coming off a MAAC tournament win, and the confidence is surely ready to carry over into the tournament.

The thing with Notre Dame is that they sometimes struggle to get anything going outside of Hannah Hidalgo’s effort. If Fairfield can shut down Hidalgo, they have a shot of making this an interesting match-up.

No. 9 USC beats No. 8 Clemson (Round 1)

These No. 8/No. 9 matchups are hard to call true “upsets” since the seeding is so close together, but these often end up some of the most exciting games in the first round. They are great options if you want to throw a few more upset picks into your bracket.

Unfortunately, USC went from being a Final Four lock last season to falling to a regional eight-seed this year, as they are missing Juju Watkins. Watkins was injured in the second round of last year’s tournament, now recovering from ACL surgery. Still, the Trojans have a lot to look forward to, especially when it comes to their star freshman, Jazzy Davidson. Davidson leads USC in points (17.6 per game), rebounds (5.7 per game), assists (4.2 per game), steals (2.0 per game), and blocks (2.0 per game).

It will be interesting to see how Davidson performs in her first NCAA tournament, as the postseason has a way of bringing out the best in great players.

No. 10 Tennessee beats No.7 NC State (Round 1)

This match-up is incredibly interesting. Both NC State and Tennessee had high expectations coming into this season, and both have expereinced a bit of disappointment. These No. 7 and No. 10 seeds are probably not where either program wanted to be at this point in the season, but this is a time to prove what your team is made of.

Tennessee has had a bit of a rough go this season with injuries and locker room issues. They’ve had players step away from the team, they’ve had to discipline players, and all of it is causing disappointing results on the floor. What better way to prove to the naysayers that things are going to be okay than winning an NCAA tournament game as the underdog? It will be a test for coach Kim Caldwell, for sure.

On the other hand, NC State scored big when they got Khamil Pierre out of the transfer portal last summer, and she will be a huge factor in their success. She leads the Wolfpack in points (16.8 per game) and rebounds (12.0 per game), and has experience being on an underdog team. This one is a must-watch in round one.