Tournament Coverage

Get your brackets filled out before the action begins with the First Four on Wednesday.

It’s time for the Madness to begin. The NCAA Tournament fields are set in both men’s and women’s basketball, and now it’s time to crown a new champion of the sports. The women’s field of 68 is loaded and there should be plenty of parity among the top teams in the sport with no truly dominant squad this season – as opposed to last year where South Carolina entered undefeated and the overwhelming favorite to win it all.

The No. 1 seeds are UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and USC, with the Bruins taking the top overall seed. Since the tournament expanded in 1994, a No. 1 seed has won the title 23 times. Meanwhile, No. 2 seeds have won the championship four times and No. 3 seeds three times – with the most recent being LSU in 2023, a program that is once again a No. 3 seed this year.

Dawn Staley, the legendary South Carolina coach, was none too pleased with how her team was slotted in the bracket, believing that her Gamecocks had done enough to earn the No. 1 overall seed.

“We’re going to play it, [but] obviously it’s disappointing,” Staley said. “I’d like to get some feedback on how they came to that conclusion because we put together a schedule that if done right, it should produce the overall No. 1 seed. But I will say this, we’re going to make adjustments to our schedule in the future if the standard is the standard. If that’s the standard, we can play any schedule and get the No. 1 seed.”

UConn, the winningest program in women’s basketball history with 11 national titles, is a No. 2 seed. Geno Auriemma became the winningest coach in basketball history earlier this season. Despite not winning a trophy since 2016, he has guided the Huskies to 15 of the last 16 Final Fours.