UCLA secured the top spot as the overall seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament. The other No. 1 seeds alongside the Bruins are South Carolina, Southern California, and Texas, as announced by the NCAA on Sunday night.
This marks the first instance in UCLA’s history that they have been positioned as the top team in the tournament. With only two losses during the season, both to the Trojans, the Bruins are setting a remarkable record.
Even though Dawn Staley believed her team deserved the No. 1 overall seed, the Gamecocks have three losses as they enter March Madness this year. In contrast, last year, South Carolina ended with an unbeaten season and clinched the national title.
Staley’s team is looking to be the first team to repeat as champion since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. The Huskies, who are a two-seed, are looking to end that drought with star Paige Bueckers. They’ll have to go out west if they reach the Sweet 16 and a potential rematch with JuJu Watkins and the Trojans could be waiting in the Elite Eight.
The path for all won’t be easy: This year there’s more parity in the sport. This NCAA Tournament will be only the second one in the past 19 years to have no teams entering March Madness with zero or one loss. The other time was in 2022.
The Trojans and Bruins, newcomers in the Big Ten this season, will try to win the first national championship for the conference since 1999, when Purdue won the lone one. A record 12 teams from the Big Ten are in the field. The SEC has 10 and the ACC eight. The Big 12 has seven.
The Ivy League received three bids to the tournament for the first time in conference history. Last season, Columbia earned the second at-large bid in league history. The Lions are back again as well as Princeton. Both are 11 seeds and will be competing in play-in games. Harvard, which won the conference tournament, is a 10 seed.
Duke, TCU and N.C. State joined the Huskies on the 2-seed line. Notre Dame boasts wins over Texas and USC but slumped the last few weeks of the regular season and fell to a three-seed.
William & Mary is one of six teams set to make its first appearance in the women’s NCAA Tournament. The others are Arkansas State, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Mason, Grand Canyon and UC San Diego. Four teams are headed to the men’s tournament for the first time: High Point, Omaha, SIU Edwardsville and UC San Diego.
The Tribe (15-18) are the first sub-.500 team since Incarnate Word in 2022 to make the tournament.
Payout time
For the first time in NCAA history, there will be a financial incentive for women’s teams. They will finally paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament just like the men have for years.
So-called performance units, which represent revenue, will be given to women’s teams for each win they get. A team that reaches the Final Four could bring its conference roughly $1.26 million over the next three years in financial performance rewards.
This comes a year after the women’s championship game that saw South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa do better TV ratings then the men’s title game.
Tournament sites
The top 16 seeds in the 68-team field will host first- and second-round games, with the regional rounds being played at two neutral sites for the third straight year. Spokane, Washington, will host half of the Sweet 16 and Birmingham, Alabama, will host the other eight teams.
The Final Four will be played in Tampa, Florida, on April 4, and the championship game is two days later.
Tournament tidbits
One team that didn’t make the field was Stanford, which ended the Cardinal’s 36-year streak of playing in the NCAA Tournament. It’s the first time since 1987 that Stanford won’t play in the NCAAs. While that streak is over, Tennessee continued its NCAA Tournament run of appearing every year in the field since the first NCAA Tournament in 1982. The Lady Vols are a five-seed.
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