Offseason Bracketology Encouraging for Oregon's NCAA Tournament Hopes

The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team made the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season in 2026 and will look to make it three in a row in 2027.

Do the early brackelogy projections for next season have the Ducks in the field?

Oregon Ducks Projected as No. 7 Seed in Early Bracketology

Oregon Ducks Kelly Graves NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket Projection Bracketology Katie Fiso National Champions USC — Oregon head coach Kelly Graves watches his team as the Oregon Ducks host the Penn State Nittany Lions on Jan. 24, 2026, at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon. | Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme currently has the Ducks as a No. 7 seed in the 2027 NCAA Tournament. This would slate them against the No. 10 seeded Kansas Jayhawks in the first round.

In Creme’s projection, there are 11 teams from the Big Ten in the field, the most from any singular conference. This doesn’t come as a surprise because of how dominant the conference was last season. The UCLA Bruins ended up winning the Big Ten and the national championship.

UCLA lost most of their 2025-26 team to the WNBA Draft, but are still projected to earn a No. 4 seed. Their crosstown rival and fellow Big Ten team, the USC Trojans are projected as a No. 2 seed. USC was a No. 9 seed in 2026, but this was mostly in part because they were without their best player, guard JuJu Watkins.

Watkins was the player of the year in college basketball in 2024-25 and missed all of 2025-26 due to a torn ACL. She will return to USC next season and be paired in the backcourt with 2026 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Jazzy Davidson.

In 2025-26, Oregon earned a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament after going 22-11 in the regular season with a conference record of 8-10 in a loaded Big Ten. The Ducks got a first round tournament win over the No. 9 seeded Virginia Tech Hokies before getting eliminated by the No. 1 seeded Texas Longhorns in the second round. Texas would go on to the make the Final Four.

Oregon’s best player all season was guard Katie Fiso. Fiso averaged a team high 15.5 points and 6.2 assists per game. She also grabbed 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. The 5-11 Fiso will now be entering her junior season in Eugene. It will be a big boost to the team having their starting point guard back for another season.

Oregon coach Kelly Graves will be entering his 13th season with the Ducks. He has an overall record of 264-136 with seven NCAA Tournament appearances, three trips to the second weekend, and one Final Four appearance.

The most success Graves has had at Oregon was from 2016-2020, when he had star guard Sabrina Ionescu. Ionescu helped lead the Ducks to the Elite Eight in her first two seasons and the Final Four as a junior. Unfortunately, there was no senior tournament run for her in 2020 due to COVID. Ionescu was selected No. 1 overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft.

Graves has managed to get the Ducks to the big dance four times since then, and winning four games.

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