The Toronto Metropolitan Bold, who won the OUA title with a 75-60 win over Carleton on Saturday, will be the top seed going into this week's Sun Life U SPORTS Women's Basketball Final 8, Presented by Michelob. U SPORTS announced the seeding on Sunday for the 2026 national championship tournament, which runs from Thursday to Sunday at the Amphithéâtre Desjardins on the campus of Laval University in Quebec City. This is TMU's second time as the No. 1 seed, with the prior occurrence coming in 2022, when they won the only bronze baby in school history.
Saskatchewan was awarded the at-large berth by the tournament seeding committee, which is made up of U SPORTS women's basketball coaches. The Huskies were a perfect 20-0 in the regular season and were ranked No. 1 throughout the season before being upset by Calgary in their Canada West semifinal.
Once the eight participating teams are established, teams are seeded with the requirement that conference playoff results be respected, conference champions be no lower than No. 6, and to avoid conference finalists from facing each other in the first round.
The complete field, in seeding order, is as follows:
- Toronto Metropolitan Bold (OUA champions: 20-2 regular season, 3-0 playoffs)
- UNB REDS (AUS champions: 18-2, 2-0)
- Calgary Dinos (CW champions: 16-4, 4-0)
- UBC Thunderbirds (CW finalists: 16-4, 2-1)
- Saskatchewan Huskies (at-large berth: 20-0, 1-1)
- McGill Martlets (RSEQ champions: 11-5, 2-0)
- Carleton Ravens (OUA finalists: 16-6, 2-1)
- Laval Rouge et Or (host: 13-3, 1-1)
All four quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, as follows: (all times Eastern)
- 12:30 p.m.: No. 7 Carleton vs. No. 2 UNB
- 2:30 p.m.: No. 6 McGill vs. No. 3 Calgary
- 6 p.m.: No. 5 Saskatchewan vs. No. 4 UBC
- 8 p.m.: No. 1 Toronto Metropolitan at No. 8 Laval
Consolation games will take place on Friday at 5 and 7 p.m., leading to the fifth-place game on Saturday at 1 p.m. The semifinals are set for 3 and 5 p.m. Saturday. The tournament concludes on Sunday with the bronze medal game at 1 p.m. and the championship at 5 p.m.
Tickets for the event are currently on sale at usportstickets.ca
All 11 games of the championship will be streamed on CBC digital platforms in English and Radio-Canada digital platforms in French.