The NCAA Division I field hockey tournament is an American intercollegiate field hockey tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I national champion. The tournament has been held annually since 1981.
The championship is contested exclusively by women's teams and there is no equivalent NCAA men's field hockey championship.
The most successful team is the North Carolina Tar Heels, who have eleven titles. In addition, North Carolina has finished national runner-up an NCAA record eleven times. The most recent championship, in 2023, was also won by North Carolina.
Field hockey was one of 12 women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981–82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports.[1] The AIAW continued to conduct its established championship program in the same 12 (and other) sports; however, after a year of dual women's championships, the NCAA overcame the AIAW and usurped its authority and membership. The first NCAA women's national championship events were staged November 21–22, 1981, in cross country and field hockey.
The tournament originally began with six teams but has since expanded to 19; at different times a third-place game has been played as well. Under the tournament's current format, 19 teams qualify for the tournament with three play-in games. The play-in games and first two rounds are played at the home turf of the higher seeds in each matchup. The final four teams then move on to the championship rounds at a predetermined site.
59 teams have appeared in the NCAA Tournament in at least one year starting with 1981 (the initial year that the post-season tournament was under the auspices of the NCAA). The results for all years are shown in this table below.[4] Conference affiliations reflect those for the upcoming 2024 season.
The code in each cell represents the furthest the team made it in the respective tournament:
Source:[5]
as of end of 2022 championship
