| Gender: | Women's |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Teams: | 64 |
| Finalfourarena: | Nationwide Arena |
| Finalfourcity: | Columbus, Ohio |
| Champions: | Notre Dame Fighting Irish |
| Titlecount: | 2nd |
| Champgamecount: | 6th |
| Champffcount: | 8th |
| Runnerup: | Mississippi State Bulldogs |
| Gamecount: | 2nd |
| Runnerffcount: | 2nd |
| Semifinal1: | UConn Huskies |
| Finalfourcount: | 19th |
| Semifinal2: | Louisville Cardinals |
| Finalfourcount2: | 3rd |
| Coach: | Muffet McGraw |
| Coachcount: | 2nd |
| Mop: | Arike Ogunbowale |
| Mopteam: | Notre Dame |
The 2018 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 16, 2018, and concluded with the national championship game on Sunday, April 1. The Final Four was played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.[1] This is the third time that the women's Final Four was played in Ohio after previously being held in Cincinnati in 1997 and Cleveland in 2007 and the first time that the women's Final Four was played in Columbus. For only the fourth time in the tournament’s 37-year history, all four of the number one seeds made it to the Final Four (1989, 2012, 2015).
Tennessee continued its record streak of making every NCAA women's basketball tournament at 37 consecutive appearances. Connecticut also continued its record streak of 11 consecutive Final Four appearances.
Pending any changes to the format, a total of 64 teams will enter the 2016 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 36 bids are "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible. The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc. (meaning where the two seeds add up to 17, that team will be assigned to play another).
The basis for the subregionals returned to the approach used between 1982 and 2002; the top sixteen teams, as chosen in the bracket selection process, hosted the first two rounds on campus.
The selection committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 64.
The first two rounds, also referred to as the subregionals, were played at the sites of the top 16 seeds, as was done in 2016 and 2017. The following are the sites selected to host the last four rounds of the 2018 tournament.[2] [3] [4]
First and Second rounds (Subregionals)
Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
National semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)
Selections for the 2018 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship were announced at 7 p.m. Eastern time, Monday, March 12 via ESPN.
The basis for the subregionals returned to the approach used between 1982 and 2002; the top sixteen teams, as chosen in the bracket selection process, hosted the first two rounds on campus.
A total of 64 teams entered the 2018 tournament. 32 automatic bids teams were given to teams that won their conference tournament. The remaining 32 teams were granted "at-large" bids, which were extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.
The selection committee also seeded the entire field from 1 to 64.
The following teams automatically qualified for the 2018 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament.
| Conference | Team | Record | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Last bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | Louisville | 32–2 | 21st | 2017 | |
| America East | Maine | 23–9 | 8th | 2004 | |
| American | 32–0 | 30th | 2017 | ||
| Atlantic 10 | George Washington | 19–13 | 18th | 2016 | |
| Atlantic Sun | Florida Gulf Coast | 30–4 | 5th | 2017 | |
| Big 12 | Baylor | 31–1 | 17th | 2017 | |
| Big East | 26–7 | 23rd | 2017 | ||
| Big Sky | Northern Colorado | 26–6 | 1st | Never | |
| Big South | Liberty | 24–9 | 17th | 2013 | |
| Big Ten | Ohio State | 27–6 | 25th | 2017 | |
| Big West | Cal State Northridge | 19–15 | 4th | 2015 | |
| Colonial | Elon | 25–7 | 2nd | 2017 | |
| C-USA | 24–8 | 20th | 2017 | ||
| Horizon | Green Bay | 29–3 | 18th | 2017 | |
| Ivy League | Princeton | 24–5 | 7th | 2016 | |
| MAAC | 27–5 | 4th | 2017 | ||
| Mid-American | Central Michigan | 28–4 | 4th | 2013 | |
| MEAC | 23–8 | 4th | 2016 | ||
| Missouri Valley | Drake | 26–7 | 12th | 2017 | |
| Mountain West | 23–9 | 5th | 2017 | ||
| Northeast | Saint Francis (PA) | 24–9 | 12th | 2011 | |
| Ohio Valley | 31–3 | 4th | 2017 | ||
| Pac-12 | 30–4 | 14th | 2017 | ||
| Patriot | American | 26–6 | 2nd | 2015 | |
| SEC | 26–6 | 15th | 2017 | ||
| Southern | 30–2 | 1st | Never | ||
| Southland | Nicholls State | 19–13 | 1st | Never | |
| SWAC | Grambling State | 19–13 | 6th | 1999 | |
| Summit | 26–6 | 8th | 2016 | ||
| Sun Belt | Little Rock | 23–9 | 5th | 2015 | |
| West Coast | 27–5 | 10th | 2017 | ||
| WAC | Seattle | 18–14 | 1st | Never |
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All times are listed as Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
* – Denotes overtime period
During the Final Four round, regardless of the seeds of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region (Connecticut's Albany Region) plays against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region (Notre Dame's Spokane Region), and the champion of the second overall top seed's region (Mississippi State's Kansas City Region) plays against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region (Louisville's Lexington Region).
* – Denotes overtime period
See main article: article and 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship Game.
| Conference | Bids | Record | Win % | R64 | R32 | S16 | E8 | F4 | CG | NC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | 8 | 16–7 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| SEC | 7 | 12–7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | ||
| American | 2 | 4–2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | ||
| Pac-12 | 6 | 12–6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | – | – | – | ||
| Big 12 | 4 | 5–4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Mid-American | 2 | 4–2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – | – | ||
| Big Ten | 6 | 4–6 | 6 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Big East | 4 | 4–4 | 4 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| MAAC | 1 | 1–1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Atlantic Sun | 1 | 1–1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| Atlantic 10 | 2 | 0–2 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
ESPN had US television rights to all games during the tournament.[13] During the first and second rounds, ESPN aired select games nationally on ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNews. All other games aired regionally on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN3 and were streamed online via WatchESPN. Most of the nation got whip-a-round coverage during this time, which allowed ESPN to rotate between the games and focus the nation on the game that had the closest score.
First & second rounds Friday/Sunday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Friday/Sunday
Final Four
First & second rounds Saturday/Monday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Saturday/Monday
Championship
Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.[14] [15] Teams participating in the regional finals, Final Four, and Championship were allowed to have their own local broadcasts, but they weren’t allowed to stream those broadcasts online.
Regional finals Sunday
Final Four
Regional finals Monday
Championship