Butler Women’s Basketball Earns No. 1 Overall Seed in NJCAA National Tournament

The Butler Grizzlies women's basketball team earned the No. 1 overall seed for the NJCAA National Tournament, their first in program history. 

This will be the Grizzlies first NJCAA National Tournament appearance since the 2020-21 season and the fifth under head coach Mike Helmer.

The Region 6 champion Grizzlies are one of three KJCCC teams to be selected in the NJCAA National Tournament (No. 10 Dodge City and No. 13 Hutchinson).

No. 1 seed Butler will play the winner of No. 16 New Mexico and No. 17 Arizona Western (Tuesday Mar. 24) on Thursday, Mar. 26 at 10 am CT at Townsley Law Arena in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

New Mexico Junior College is 23-6 on the season and lost in the Region 5 Quarterfinal to Grayson College 84-77. Common opponents played this season include Fort Hays Tech NW (W, 92-41), Seward County (W, 84-81), Independence (W, 73-60) and McCook (W, 74-46).

Arizona Western is the 2025-26 Region 1 champions, having previously beaten the previous No. 1 team in the NJCAA Eastern Arizona 51-50 in the Region 1 Championship. New Mexico and Arizona Western played each other back on Nov 6, with Arizona Western coming out on top 83-81 in overtime. 

The Grizzlies 32-1 start ties the 2013-14 Butler women's team for the best start in program history. Butler won their first and second round matchups of the national tournament that season before falling to Chipola in the quarterfinals. 

All games will be available to watch on ESPN+

Full bracket can be found here: https://njcaachampionship.prestosports.com/sports/wbkb/div1/2025-26/national_championship/2026_DI_WBB_Championship_Bracket_-_v0.pdf