2025 NCAA Bowling Championship
 | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | April 11–12, 2025 |
| Teams | 19 |
| Final positions | |
| Champions | Youngstown State (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Jacksonville State (3rd title match) |
The 2025 NCAA Bowling Championship was the 21st edition of the NCAA Bowling Championship, the annual tournament to determine the national champion of women's NCAA collegiate ten-pin bowling.[1] The finals were hosted by the UNLV and played at the Suncoast Bowling Center in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 11 to 12, 2025.[2] The championship game was streamed live on ESPNU.[3] Youngstown State defeated Jacksonville State in the championship game to win its first title.[4][5]
Format
The 2025 championship featured a 19-team format, with 4 regionals. One regionals had four teams, while three had five, with play-in matches between Belmont Abbey and Prairie View A&M in Arlington, Texas, Marian and Saint Vincent in Rochester, New York, and Kutztown and Fayetteville State in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Each region had one winner who would go on to play in a four-team tournament for the national championship.[2] The 2025 pre-determined regional locations were as follows:
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.[2]
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 26, 2025.[2]
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.[2]
Conference USA (CUSA) had the most bids of any conference with eight. 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), Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), 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. Additionally, one independent team received an at-large bid to the tournament.[6]
| Seed | Team | Conference | Bid type | Appearance | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacksonville State | CUSA | At-large | 2nd | 2024 |
| 2 | Nebraska | Independent | At-large | 21st | 2024 |
| 3 | Youngstown State | CUSA | At-large | 5th | 2024 |
| 4 | Wichita State | CUSA | Automatic | 1st | Never |
| Arkansas State | CUSA | At-large | 17th | 2024 | |
| Belmont Abbey | GMAC | Automatic | 2nd | 2024 | |
| Fairleigh Dickinson | NEC | Automatic | 15th | 2022 | |
| Fayetteville State | CIAA | Automatic | 4th | 2024 | |
| Felician | CACC | Automatic | 1st | Never | |
| Kutztown | ECC | Automatic | 1st | Never | |
| Louisiana Tech | CUSA | At-large | 5th | 2024 | |
| Marian | CCIW | Automatic | 2nd | 2024 | |
| Maryville | GLVC | Automatic | 3rd | 2024 | |
| North Carolina A&T | MEAC | Automatic | 7th | 2024 | |
| Prairie View A&M | SWAC | Automatic | 4th | 2023 | |
| Saint Vincent | AMCC | Automatic | 1st | Never | |
| Sam Houston | CUSA | At-large | 13th | 2024 | |
| Stephen F. Austin | CUSA | At-large | 7th | 2023 | |
| Vanderbilt | CUSA | At-large | 19th | 2024 |
Tournament bracket
All regions were double-elimination, except for the finals, which was double-elimination before a single Baker best-of-7 championship match.[7]
Arlington Regional
Play-in
| Play-in match | ||||
| Belmont Abbey | 2 | |||
| Prairie View A&M | 1 | |||
Bracket
| First round Consolation first round | Second round Consolation second round | Regional final | |||||||||||||
| 1 | Jacksonville State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Belmont Abbey | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Jacksonville State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Winner's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| SFA | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Sam Houston | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| SFA | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Jacksonville State | 2 | - | ||||||||||||
| SFA | 0 | - | |||||||||||||
| Belmont Abbey | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Sam Houston | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Sam Houston | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Loser's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| SFA | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Pittsburgh Regional
Play-in
| Play-in match | ||||
| Kutztown | 2 | |||
| Fayetteville State | 1 | |||
Bracket
| First round Consolation first round | Second round Consolation second round | Regional final | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Nebraska | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Kutztown | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Nebraska | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Winner's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| Maryville | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Arkansas State | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Maryville | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Nebraska | 2 | - | ||||||||||||
| Maryville | 1 | - | |||||||||||||
| Kutztown | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Arkansas State | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Arkansas State | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Loser's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| Maryville | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Rochester Regional
Play-in
| Play-in match | ||||
| Marian | 2 | |||
| Saint Vincent | 1 | |||
Bracket
| First round Consolation first round | Second round Consolation second round | Regional final | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Marian | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 4 | |||||||||||||
| Winner's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| North Carolina A&T | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| North Carolina A&T | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 2 | - | ||||||||||||
| North Carolina A&T | 1 | - | |||||||||||||
| Marian | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Louisiana Tech | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Loser's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| North Carolina A&T | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Lansing Regional
| First round Consolation first round | Second round Consolation second round | Regional final | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Wichita State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Felician | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Wichita State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Winner's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| FDU | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 4 | Wichita State | 2 | - | ||||||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 0 | - | |||||||||||||
| Felician | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| FDU | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| FDU | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Loser's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 2 | ||||||||||||||
Finals
Las Vegas, Nevada
| First round Consolation first round | Second round Consolation second round | Championship final | |||||||||||||
| 1 | Jacksonville State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Wichita State | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | Jacksonville State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Winner's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Nebraska | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 1 | Jacksonville State | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 4 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Wichita State | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Nebraska | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Nebraska | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Loser's bracket | |||||||||||||||
| 3 | Youngstown State | 2 | |||||||||||||
References
- ↑ "NC Bowling Championship History". NCAA.com. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship field announced". NCAA.com. National Collegiate Athletic Association. March 26, 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
- ↑ "2025 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship Bracket" (PNG). National Collegiate Athletic Association. April 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
- ↑ "NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! YSU Bowling Completes Dream Season with NCAA Title". Youngstown State Athletics. Youngstown State University. April 13, 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
- ↑ "Youngstown State wins 2025 NC bowling championship". NCAA.com. National Collegiate Athletic Association. April 13, 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
- ↑ "BOWL: Three CUSA Teams Advance to NCAA Four-Team Finals". Conference USA. Conference USA. April 6, 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
- ↑ "2025 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship Regional Brackets" (PDF). NCAA.com. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved May 5, 2026.
