FORT COLLINS, Colo. (BGSU Strategic Communications) – The Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team will head to Indianapolis for the first round of the Postseason WNIT to face Butler University on Thursday evening with tipoff set for 7 p.m. ET at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

The winner of Thursday’s game will meet Purdue in the second round, with date, site and time to be announced.

BGSU is appearing in the WNIT for the ninth time in program history, and the third time in four years. The Falcons enter the Butler game with an all-time record of 12-9 in the tourney.

The Falcons will take the court for Thursday’s game with an overall record of 16-14. BGSU went 10-8 in Mid-American Conference play. BG was picked to finish fourth in the MAC in the preseason coaches poll, and despite losing an estimated 120 player-games to date due to injury, the Falcons finished the regular season in a tie for fourth in the conference.

Butler has an overall record of 14-16, and the Bulldogs finished 6-12 in Big East Conference regular-season play.

BGSU leads Butler, 5-3, in the all-time series, and the Falcons have a 2-1 record inside Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Thursday marks the second-ever meeting between the Falcons and Bulldogs in the WNIT. In BGSU’s first-ever WNIT appearance, Butler posted a 95-90 victory over the Falcons at venerable Anderson Arena (March 13, 1998).

The 2024 season marks the 26th edition of the Postseason WNIT, powered by Triple Crown Sports and first held in 1998. The tournament field is made up of 11 automatic qualifiers and 37 at-large programs, flexing a mix of Power 4 conferences as well as ascending mid-major programs.

The Round 1 date/time schedule and the Round 2 bye opponents are as follows (NOTE – teams with first-round byes are not guaranteed to play at home in Round 2):

Wednesday, March 20

UAB at Southern Miss, 7 p.m. ET

Winner vs. Murray State, TBA

Eastern Kentucky at Purdue Fort Wayne, 7 p.m. ET

Winner vs. Cincinnati, TBA

Boise State at Montana, 9 p.m. ET

Winner plays North Dakota State, TBA

Thursday, March 21

Monmouth at Buffalo, 6 p.m. ET

Winner plays Duquesne, TBA

UAlbany at Colgate, 6 p.m. ET

Winner plays Providence, TBA

Bowling Green at Butler, 7 p.m. ET

Winner plays Purdue, TBA

Charleston at USC Upstate, 7 p.m. ET

Winner plays Illinois State, TBA

Stetson at Florida International, 7 p.m. ET

Winner plays Troy, TBA

Northern Colorado at UTSA, 7:30 p.m. ET

Winner plays Wyoming, TBA

Saint Louis at Central Arkansas, 7:30 p.m. ET

Winner plays Northern Iowa, TBA

Grambling at Oral Roberts, 8 p.m. ET

Winner plays Louisiana-Monroe, TBA

UC Riverside at South Dakota, 8 p.m. ET

Winner plays Northern Arizona, TBA

UIC at Southern Indiana, 8 p.m. ET

Winner plays Wisconsin, TBA

Cal Poly at Pacific, 9 p.m. ET

Winner plays Minnesota, TBA

Friday, March 22

Le Moyne at Niagara, 7 p.m. ET

Winner plays Vermont, TBA

UNC Greensboro at North Carolina A&T, 7 p.m. ET

Winner plays Old Dominion, TBA

Round 1 (in bracket order):

Cal Poly (17-13) at Pacific (18-14)

Boise State (21-13) at Montana (22-9)

Northern Colorado (15-15) at UTSA (17-14)

UC Riverside (18-13) at South Dakota (21-12)

Stetson (17-14) at Florida International (20-11)

UNC Greensboro (21-11) at North Carolina A&T (20-11)

UAB (18-13) at Southern Miss (18-13)

Grambling State (22-9) at Oral Roberts (21-10)

UAlbany (25-6) at Colgate (18-13)

Le Moyne (18-13) at Niagara (20-13)

Monmouth (21-9) at Buffalo (19-13)

Bowling Green (16-14) at Butler (14-16)

Eastern Kentucky (22-11) at Purdue Fort Wayne (21-12)

Saint Louis (16-18) at Central Arkansas (21-11)

Charleston (21-9) at South Carolina Upstate (16-15)

UIC (18-15) at Southern Indiana (24-6)

These 16 teams have first-round byes (alphabetical, not seeded):

Cincinnati (14-17)

Duquesne (20-12)

Illinois State (21-11)

Louisiana-Monroe (19-13)

Minnesota (16-15)

Murray State (20-11)

North Dakota State (21-11)

Northern Arizona (25-9)

Northern Iowa (16-15)

Old Dominion (22-9)

Providence (13-20)

Purdue (13-18)

Troy (19-11)

Vermont (22-11)

Wisconsin (13-16)

Wyoming (16-14)

The remaining rounds of the tournament will be held on the following dates…

Round 2 – March 23-26, 2024

Round 3 – March 27-29, 2024

Quarterfinals – March 30-April 1, 2024

Semifinals – April 2-3, 2024

The 2024 Postseason WNIT will again have its championship game broadcast on CBS Sports Network, with tipoff set for Saturday, April 6, at 3 p.m. ET

All games are played at individual schools; the 2024 Postseason WNIT has 24 teams that won at least 20 games this season.

The 2024 Postseason WNIT bracket features four teams from the Missouri Valley and Sun Belt; three teams hail from the Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big Ten, Coastal and Summit, and two teams each will represent the American, America East, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big West, Mid-American and Mountain West. There’s a single team each out of the Big 12, Big South, Conference USA, Horizon, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Metro Athletic, Northeast, Southern, Southwestern Athletic and West Coast.

In the 2023 Postseason WNIT championship game, Kansas topped Columbia in front of 11,701 fans in Lawrence, KS., and in 2022, South Dakota State earned the crown by beating Seton Hall. Other recent title winners include Rice (2021), Arizona (2019), Indiana (2018) and Michigan in 2017, a game against Georgia Tech that went into triple overtime.

BGSU’S POSTSEASON WNIT HISTORY (12-9)

(10-6 home [2-2 Anderson Arena, 8-4 Stroh Center] | 1-1 away | 1-2 neutral-site games)

Date (Round) Opponent (Site) Result

3/13/98 (First) BUTLER (Anderson Arena) L 90-95

3/20/08 (First) DAYTON (Anderson Arena) W 64-52

3/22/08 (Second) at Michigan State L 66-74

3/22/09 (Second) SYRACUSE (Anderson Arena) W 72-69

3/26/09 (Third) INDIANA (Anderson Arena) L 67-75

3/15/12 (First) VCU (Stroh Center) L 71-72

3/21/13 (First) SMU (Stroh Center) W 76-70

3/23/13 (Second) DUQUESNE (Stroh Center) W 61-54

3/28/13 (Third) DREXEL (Stroh Center) L 47-50

3/20/14 (First) HIGH POINT (Stroh Center) W 72-62

3/24/14 (Second) ST. BONAVENTURE (Stroh Center) W 76-65

3/27/14 (Third) MICHIGAN (Stroh Center) W 63-53

3/31/14 (Quarterfinals) RUTGERS (Stroh Center) L 50-55

3/19/21 (First) vs. Creighton (Rockford, Ill.) L 65-72

3/20/21 (Consolation) vs. Dayton (Rockford, Ill.) W 77-76

3/22/21 (Cons. Championship) vs. Drake (Rockford, Ill.) L 68-78

3/16/23 (First) LIBERTY (Stroh Center) W 87-80

3/20/23 (Second) at Green Bay W 69-51

3/23/23 (Third) MEMPHIS (Stroh Center) W 73-60

3/27/23 (Quarterfinals) FLORIDA (Stroh Center) W 69-52

3/29/23 (Semifinals) COLUMBIA (Stroh Center) L 70-77