Committee also reviews championship operations at annual summer meeting
During its annual summer meeting, the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee voted on future leadership and reviewed championship operations.
The committee elected Jeff Konya, director of athletics at San Jose State, to serve as the committee’s vice chair for 2026-27, moving to the chair position in 2027-28. The 2026-27 committee will be chaired by Liz Darger, Brigham Young senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator.
Konya is a two-time NACDA Athletics Director of the Year and has served as San Jose State’s director of athletics since 2021. He recently completed his third year on the committee, having served a previous one-year term from 2017-18 before returning for the past two years. Before arriving at San Jose State, Konya served as athletics director at Northeastern from 2018-21, Oakland from 2014-18, Cal State Bakersfield from 2010-14 and Northeastern State from 2009-10. Altogether, he has 28 years of experience in intercollegiate athletics. Konya earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton, where he was a member of the football team, and a law degree with honors from Iowa.
“Serving on the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee has been one of the highlights of my professional career, and I’m grateful that my peers have entrusted me with this opportunity,” Konya said. “This is an incredible time for women’s basketball, and I look forward to helping guide the championship during a period of tremendous growth for the sport.”
Darger and Konya will be joined on the committee by Kristen Brown of Nebraska, Vicky Chun of Yale, Sara Elcano of Oregon State, Annie Fiorvanti of UConn, Josh Heird of Louisville, Candice Lee of Vanderbilt, Marvin Lewis of George Mason, Sherika Montgomery of the Big South Conference, Jill Redmond of the Missouri Valley Conference, and Ashleigh Simmons of Western Carolina.
For the 2027 championship, the committee will again unveil the top 16 seeds on the Saturday before Selection Sunday. In partnership with ESPN, the reveal will group teams by seed line (1-4) with the four teams on each seed line listed alphabetically. The full championship bracket and overall seeding reveal remain exclusive to Selection Sunday.
As part of its discussion of the championship and feedback from coaches and student-athletes, the committee reviewed team requirements at each round, including media obligations and other events. Modifications designed to lessen time commitments and required access for the teams were made, including the discontinuation of press conferences and open locker room periods for advancing teams on the day between the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight.
With an expanded championship field in 2027, the Wins Above Bubble selection metric required an updated baseline for an average bubble team. The baseline will move to the No. 55 team in NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings with a 76-team field, compared with No. 45 in NET with a 68-team field. The WAB uses data from the NET to assign a value to each result for a team.
The committee also reviewed and updated the tournament’s selection criteria and bracketing principles. Beginning with the 2027 championship, the top 16 teams will be bracketed solely by their true seed ranking. With this change, teams on the top four seed lines will be placed in the bracket without regard to conference affiliation. A fully updated principles and procedures document for selecting, seeding and bracketing the 2027 championship will be published later this summer.
