The 2026 NCAA Bowling Championship was the 22nd edition of the NCAA Bowling Championship, the annual tournament to determine the national champion of women's NCAA collegiate ten-pin bowling. The finals were hosted by the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and played at the Yorktown Lanes in Parma Heights, Ohio from April 10 to 11, 2026. The championship game was streamed live on ESPNU. Jacksonville State defeated Wichita State in the championship game to win its second title.
Format The 2026 championship featured a 19-team format, with 4 regionals. One regionals had four teams, while three had five, with play-in matches between Carroll and Fayetteville State in Lansing, Michigan, Dominican (NY) and Alabama A&M in Rochester, New York, and Belmont Abbey and Saint Vincent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Each region had one winner who would go on to play in a four-team tournament for the national championship. The 2026 pre-determined regional locations were as follows:
Arlington, Texas Lansing, Michigan Rochester, New York Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Each regional was played as a double-elimination tournament, except for the three play-in matches. All regional matches, except for what the NCAA calls "if necessary regional finals", were best-of-three matches bowled in the following order: five-person team, Baker total pinfall, Baker best-of-seven match play. Any "if necessary regional final" was Baker best-of-seven. Regional winners advanced to the championship event, which was also double-elimination. All matches were bowled under the standard format for regionals (best-of-three matches using specified formats in a specific order) except the championship final, which was Baker best-of-seven.
Qualification Since there is only one national collegiate championship for women's bowling, all NCAA bowling programs (whether from Division I, Division II, or Division III) were eligible. A total of 19 teams competed in the double-elimination tournament, with 11 conference champions receiving automatic bids and eight teams receiving at-large bids. The teams were revealed in a selection show on March 25, 2026.
Bids There were 19 teams selected for the tournament - 11 were selected automatically as conference champions, while another eight were selected at-large. The top four teams in the tournament were seeded and assigned to separate regions; they were the only teams seeded for this tournament.
Conference USA (CUSA) had the most bids of any conference with eight, while the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) had two. The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC), Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), East Coast Conference (ECC), Conference Carolinas/Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Northeast Conference (NEC), and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) sent only their conference tournament champions.
Seed Team Conference Bid type Appearance Last1 Jacksonville State CUSA Automatic3rd20252 Vanderbilt CUSA At-large20th20253 Arkansas State CUSA At-large18th20254 Louisiana Tech CUSA At-large6th2025 Alabama A&M University SWAC Automatic4th2014 Belmont Abbey GMAC Automatic3rd2025 Bryant ECC Automatic1stNever Carroll CCIW Automatic1stNever Dominican (NY) CACC Automatic1stNever Duquesne NEC Automatic4th2024 Fayetteville State CIAA Automatic5th2025 Maryville GLVC At-large4th2025 Nebraska CUSA At-large22nd2025 Newman GLVC Automatic1stNever North Carolina A&T MEAC Automatic8th2025 Saint Vincent AMCC Automatic 2nd2025 Sam Houston CUSA At-large 14th2025 Wichita State CUSA At-large2nd2025 Youngstown State CUSA At-large6th 2025
Tournament bracket All regions were double-elimination, except for the finals, which was double-elimination before a single Baker best-of-7 championship match.
Lansing Regional Play-in
Bracket
Rochester Regional Play-in
Bracket
Pittsburgh Regional Play-in
Bracket
Arlington Regional
Finals
Parma Heights, Ohio
References