Brentley's Bracketology: Predicting 2023 NCAA women's golf regional fields

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It’s once again time for college golf’s version of bracketology.

As the final women’s conference tournaments finish up, GolfChannel.com’s college golf insider Brentley Romine predicts which teams will make regionals, what seeds they’ll receive and where they’ll be sent.

The official regional fields will be revealed Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. Each regional will be contested on May 8-10.

A year after increasing the number of regionals from four to six, the NCAA made another big change this year by expanding the number of teams that qualify for the NCAA Championship from 24 to 30. While there are still 72 total teams that advance to regionals, now the top five teams will make it out of each regional.

Just two of the six regional hosts are projected to qualify for regionals this year.

As for the magic number, which was coined by Golfweek’s Lance Ringler as the Golfstat ranking of the final at-large berth, that is at 57 for the second straight year with just a couple more chances – upsets in the WAC and Summit League, or Sacramento State climbing two spots in the final ranking – for that number to shrink. As of this projection, South Florida would be the last team and Minnesota, at No. 58, would be the first team out.

Here’s a projection of how this year’s six regionals will look when the fields are finalized:

(Note: Automatic qualifiers are listed with their conference in parentheses; *-projected conference champion)

Pullman Regional

Palouse Ridge GC, Pullman, Washington (Host: Washington State)

1. Stanford
2. Baylor
3. USC (Pac-12)
4. Clemson (ACC)
5. Virginia
6. Tulsa
7. Houston
8. Alabama
9. North Carolina
10. Sacramento State (Big Sky)
11. Cal Poly (Big West)
12. Youngstown State (Horizon*)

Raleigh Regional

Lonnie Poole GC, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: N.C. State)

1. Wake Forest
2. Arizona State
3. Florida State
4. Ohio State
5. Arizona
6. North Texas (C-USA)
7. TCU
8. N.C. State
9. Purdue
10. Xavier (Big East)
11. Louisiana-Monroe (Sun Belt)
12. Missouri State (MVC)

San Antonio Regional

TPC San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas (Host: UTSA)

1. LSU
2. Texas
3. Northwestern
4. Oklahoma State (Big 12)
5. SMU (AAC)
6. Michigan State
7. Cal
8. College of Charleston (Colonial)
9. Kansas
10. Furman (SoCon)
11. Campbell (Big South)
12. Sacred Heart (Northeast*)

Athens Regional

University of Georgia GC, Athens, Georgia (Host: Georgia)

1. South Carolina
2. San Jose State
3. Ole Miss
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. Maryland
7. Denver (Summit*)
8. Arkansas
9. Sam Houston State (WAC*)
10. South Florida
11. Lipscomb (ASUN)
12. Richmond (Patriot)

Palm Beach Gardens Regional

PGA National Resort, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (Host: FAU)

1. Mississippi State
2. Oregon
3. Vanderbilt
4. Iowa State
5. Duke
6. Texas Tech
7. Tennessee
8. Michigan
9. Oregon State
10. Nebraska
11. Augusta (Southland)
12. Morehead State (OVC)

Westfield Regional

Chatham Hills GC, Westfield, Indiana (Host: Indiana)

1. Texas A&M (SEC)
2. Auburn
3. Pepperdine
4. UCF
5. Kentucky
6. UCLA
7. Kent State (MAC)
8. New Mexico (Mountain West)
9. Illinois (Big Ten)
10. UNLV
11. Penn (Ivy)
12. Quinnipiac (MAAC)

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Brentley’s Bracketology: Predicting 2023 NCAA women’s golf regional fields