Where Cowgirls Stand in Bracketology Ahead of Selection Sunday

OSU is heading back to the NCAA Tournament, but the Cowgirls are still awaiting their matchups.

Oklahoma State Cowgirls head coach Jacie Hoyt reacts after a score against Iowa State during the second quarter in the senior day women basketball at Hilton Coliseum on February. 25, 2026, in Ames, Iowa. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma State is set for the postseason, and it will soon find out where it’s headed.

On Sunday, the NCAA Tournament will unofficially begin with the unveiling of the brackets for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. With action set to begin next week, the Cowgirls will be looking to make some noise in the big dance.

Coming into this season, OSU was expected to compete for a hosting seed in the NCAA Tournament, but after some struggles throughout the season, the Cowgirls are set to head on the road to begin their postseason journey. For the third time in Jacie Hoyt’s four seasons in Stillwater, the Cowgirls will be in the NCAA Tournament, and they will be hoping to secure their first win under her watch.

While making a deep run appears unlikely at this point, the postseason is all about matchups, and the Cowgirls will be hoping to get a path that can help them achieve their goals. With the final teams securing automatic bids this weekend, the tournament field should be set quite soon, but it’s still likely that the current Bracketology will pan out quite similarly to Sunday’s bracket.

Currently, ESPN has OSU as an 8-seed in Columbia, set for a first-round matchup against USC before South Carolina would almost certainly await the Cowgirls in the second round. Considering OSU was an 8 seed in 2023 and a 7 seed in 2025, this is some familiar territory for Hoyt and the program.

Meanwhile, CBS Sports has the Cowgirls projected as a 9 seed and headed to Los Angeles to face 8 seed Tennessee before a potential second-round meeting with UCLA. Although it would be exciting to see OSU play against a top seed in the tournament and try to pull a bracket-busting upset, the Cowgirls’ fate is almost certainly an exit at some point in the first weekend if they end up in their current expected range.

This season hasn’t met the high-end expectations that some held coming into the season, but it’s far from a failure when the Cowgirls are headed to the NCAA Tournament. Although the Cowgirls’ hopes of making any real noise in the big dance are slim, there’s a reason the games aren’t decided on paper.

Hoyt and company still have a chance to make something special happen when they get to their next destination, but as of now, it doesn’t appear that OSU’s path will be all that favorable.