SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. —  The Shippensburg University women's basketball team is ranked No. 4 in the second edition of the NCAA Atlantic Region rankings released Wednesday. The NCAA regional rankings are used to determine the teams that qualify for the NCAA Tournament in March. 

This is the second edition of the regional rankings before the announcement of the tournament field, which is set for this Sunday night. Each set of rankings includes all games played through the previous Sunday.

Eight teams from each of the eight regions will advance to the NCAA Tournament following conference championships. The Atlantic Region is comprised of three conferences: the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), the Mountain East Conference (MEC) and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA). Each conference champion will receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, regardless of its position in the rankings. 

SU travels to Gannon, the host of the PSAC Semifinals, where they will face the Golden Knights at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
 
The Atlantic Region Championships will feature three automatic qualifiers – the tournament champions from the PSAC, MEC and CIAA – and five at-large selections.
 
Shippensburg is seeking its first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2016-17 season.
 
The regional rankings committees are tasked with assigning teams based on the following criteria, which shall be applied in no particular order per the NCAA Handbook: in-region winning percentage; Division II winning percentage; Division II strength of schedule (opponents' average winning percentage and opponents' opponents' average winning percentage); Division II head-to-head competition and results versus Division II common opponents.
 
Additional criteria the committee should consider includes rating percentage index (RPI) and performance indicator. The performance indicator breakdown is on Page 31 of the NCAA's pre-tournament manual, available here:https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/basketball/d2/women/2022-23D2WBB_PreChamps.pdf