Kansas City, Mo. – (Bracket  | Video Announcement | Schedule ) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially announced the 32 qualifiers and bracket for the 37th annual NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship, presented by Wells Fargo. The event takes place at Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark in Billings, Montana, March 15 – 21.

This year's field consists of 14 automatic berths, 17 at-large selections and championship host Rocky Mountain (Mont.). Automatic qualification is given to conference regular-season champions, regular-season runners-up, tournament champions or tournament runners-up depending on the league. At-large teams were determined using the final regular-season Coaches' Top 25 poll.

The 12^th ranked Cougars, who are a three seed after finishing the regular season with a 26-6 record, earned an at large bid and will take on the 21^st ranked University of Montana Western Bulldogs in the first round on Wednesday, March 15^th at 6:45 p.m. This will be the 13^th appearance for the Cougars in the National Championships and the second time under Columbia head coach Jessica Keller since taking over the program in 2014.

The Cougars come into the game after finishing the regular season with a 19-5 record in conference play. As a team, Columbia ranks in the top 10 nationally in several statistical categories including third in 3-point field goals made (284), sixth in total blocks (134), ninth in turnover margin (4.469), and ninth in scoring defense per game (56.219). In addition, they rank 10^th in both scoring margin (18.625) and 3-point field goal percentage (0.351). Columbia College is led by Ashlee Marlatt who leads the team in scoring averaging 12.5 points per game and Morgan Brandt who is averaging a team high 8.42 rebounds per game.

Montana Western comes into this game with a 23-8 record including an 11-7 mark in conference play. Out of the Frontier Conference, the Bulldogs rank fifth nationally in scoring defense per game (54.258), sixth in scoring margin (13.742), 12^th in field goal percentage defense (0.355), and 15^th in assist/turnover ratio. Montana Western is led by Aniese Palmore who leads the team in scoring (14.9), assists (3.29), and steals (1.39) per game.

The NAIA Network – the association's official video streaming home – will broadcast the first 30 games leading up to the championship final on ESPN3. The video platform, powered by Stretch Internet, allows users access to live video, statistics, and social interaction on a number of devices, including mobile. Single day passes can be purchased for $9.95, while an all-tournament package is available at $29.95. For more information and to pre-register, click here. .

For more information on the 2017 NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship, click here.