COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S AND WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS : Virginia Heads 48-Team Field : National women: UCLA, USC, CS Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara get bids.

Perhaps a bit of controversy is what the NCAA women’s tournament needed to show it had entered a new era.

The tournament used to be like an elite club getting together every year and not letting very many new members in.

Those days drew to a close Sunday when the NCAA selection committee announced the 48-team field. There was a 45% turnover from last year’s event, with 22 teams and seven of the top 16 seeded teams from 1991 missing.

This isn’t to say there was a total upheaval among the elite. Top-ranked Virginia (29-1) is the top-seeded team in the East Regional, and defending national champion Tennessee (27-2), ranked No. 2, was sent to the Mideast and seeded No. 1. The other top-seeded teams were No. 3 Stanford (25-3) in the West and No. 7 Iowa (25-3) in the Midwest.

But the exclusion of Atlantic Coast Conference runnerup Georgia Tech (17-13), Auburn and 24th-ranked Georgia (19-11), the Southeastern Conference runner-up, were among the most notable surprises. Georgia’s exclusion was particularly shocking because it had been the top-seeded team in the West last year.

“That’s amazing,” said Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer, whose team has reached the Final Four the last two seasons. “You can’t take anything for granted. I told my team today at practice, ‘You better appreciate being in the tournament.’ ‘

The omission of Georgia means only four teams have been to the NCAA tournament every year. Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech and Cal State Long Beach earned a 12th consecutive trip.

Probably the biggest difference came in the SEC’s representation. Last season, the SEC sent seven teams to the tournament but only put four in this time. The Pacific 10 earned five spots, sending Stanford, USC, California, UCLA and Arizona State. Two teams went from the Big West conference--first-time entrant UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach.

In all, 23 teams received automatic spots through conference tournaments or regular-season championships. This explains how Notre Dame (14-16), which will play at UCLA in Wednesday’s first round, was able to reach the tournament with a losing record. Oddly enough, the Irish failed to make the NCAA tournament last season with a 23-9 record because the Midwestern Collegiate Conference didn’t get an automatic bid.

“It was perhaps our toughest year,” said UCLA senior associate athletic director Judith Holland, the chairwoman of the NCAA selection committee. “Through midnight, we had 16 teams still on the table for one or two spots.”

Virginia Coach Debbie Ryan surveyed the tournament and agreed.

“There’s some extremely competitive brackets,” said Ryan, whose team will meet the first-round winner of Vermont (29-0) and George Washington (24-6).

Ryan pointed out that the East Regional has eight of the top 25 ranked teams, plus a talented team from Connecticut, which is 22-10. Nevertheless, she isn’t bothered by the apparent strength in the Cavaliers’ regional.

“It’s just a tough, tough region,” she said. “To be honest with you, I’m pretty happy with that. I think that will provide us with a little more impetus to be focused. What will help us is we have tough competition. It’s an extremely hard bracket and I’m happy for that.”

For UCLA, going to the Midwest Regional meant escaping Stanford, USC, California and UC Santa Barbara in the West. UCLA (19-9) went 1-6 against those teams this season.

“It doesn’t bother me,” said UCLA Coach Billie Moore, whose team lost in the first round two years ago. “I thought they’d have to send some people out.”

The Bruins, who won five of their last six games, would play at No. 4-seeded Texas (21-9) in the second round if they beat Notre Dame on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.

By finishing 21-7, USC earned a first-round bye. The Trojans, who lost in the second round last year to Long Beach, are seeded third and will play host to the winner of No. 6 Wisconsin (20-8) and No. 11 Montana (22-6).

“This program has come a long way in the last three years,” said Marianne Stanley, who is in her third season as coach at USC. “Being seeded third is a legitimate place for us to be.”

Long Beach (21-9), seeded 10th, will play at No. 7 Creighton (27-3) in the first round, and No. 9 UC Santa Barbara (26-4), the Big West champion, plays host to No. 8 Houston (22-7).

“I felt that there was no way we shouldn’t be in the tournament,” Long Beach Coach Glenn McDonald said. “I was kind of scared because our men’s team didn’t get in two years ago and everyone thought they’d be in. But I felt that 21-9 should do it.”

* WHEN THEY PLAY: Days for the first- and second-round games in the NCAA women’s tournament. C19