| Current Season: | 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament |
| Sport: | Basketball |
| Inaugural: | 1982 |
| Organizer: | NCAA |
| Teams: | 68 |
| Champion: | South Carolina (3rd title) |
| Champ Season: | 2024 |
| Most Champs: | UConn (11) |
| Tv: | ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS |
| Streaming: | ESPN+ |
| Level: | 1 |
The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness,[1] is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship.
The tournament was preceded by the AIAW women's basketball tournament, which was organized by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1972 to 1982. Basketball was one of 12 women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981–82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. The AIAW continued to conduct its established championship program in the same 12 (and other) sports; however, after a year of dual women's championships, the NCAA prevailed, while the AIAW disbanded.
As of 2022, the tournament follows the same format and selection process as its men's counterpart, with 32 automatic bids awarded to the champions of the Division I conferences, and 36 "at-large bids" extended by the NCAA Selection Committee, which are placed into four regional divisions and seeded from 1 to 16. The four lowest-seeded automatic bids, and the four lowest-seeded at-large bids, compete in the First Four games to advance to the 64-team bracket in the first round. The national semi-finals, branded as the Women's Final Four, are traditionally scheduled on the same weekend as the men's Final Four, but in a different host city. Presently, the Women's Final Four uses a Friday/Sunday scheduling, with its games occurring one day prior to the men's Final Four and championship, respectively.[2]
Attendance and interest in the women's championship have grown over the years, especially from 2003 to 2016, when the final championship game was moved to the Tuesday following the Monday men's championship game.[2] The tournament is often overshadowed by the more-prominent men's tournament; after a gender equality review following the 2021 tournament, the NCAA expanded it to the current 68-team format of the men's tournament and extended the "March Madness" branding to the tournament as well. The 2024 women's championship was the first to receive higher viewership than the men's championship the same year. Still, the tournament receives a smaller amount of funding from broadcast rights (which are held by ESPN, and are pooled with those of other NCAA Division I championships besides golf and men's basketball) and sponsorship (which are sold by CBS and Turner Sports) than the men's tournament.
With 11 national titles, the UConn Huskies hold the record for the most NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championships, which included four straight championships from 2013 through 2016.[3] The team had also made the semi-finals for 14 consecutive tournaments.
From 1982 to 1990, 1996 to 2002, 2017 to 2019 and since 2021, the Women's Final Four is usually played on the Friday before the Men's Final Four or the hours before the men played on the final Saturday of the tournament. The final, since 2023, is played the Sunday afternoon following the Men's Final Four; from 2017 to 2019, 2021 and 2022, Sunday evening.
The tournament bracket is made up of champions from each Division I conference, which are automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large bids, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win–loss records, and NET data.
See main article: NCAA basketball tournament selection process. Since 2022, 68 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. Of these teams, 32 earn automatic bids by winning their respective conference tournaments. Since 2017 the Ivy League conducts its own post-season tournament. The remaining teams are granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. Dr. Marilyn McNeil, vice president/director of athletics at Monmouth University is the current chairwoman. On March 1, 2011, Bowling Green State University's director of intercollegiate athletics, Greg Christopher, was appointed chair of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee during the 2011–12 academic year.
The tournament begins with four opening-round games known as the First Four. Like the men's version, the women's First Four involves the four lowest-ranked conference champions playing for 16 seeds in the round of 64, and the four lowest-ranked at-large teams playing for their own spots in the round of 64.[4]
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 that all first-round games involve teams whose seeds add up to 17).
The first NCAA women's basketball tournament was held in 1982. The AIAW also held a basketball tournament in 1982, but most of the top teams, including defending AIAW champion Louisiana Tech, decided to participate in the NCAA tournament.
The championship consisted of 32 teams from 1982 to 1985 (in 1983, 36), 40 teams from 1986 to 1988, and 48 teams from 1989 to 1993. From 1994 to 2021, 64 teams competed in each tournament. From 2022, the tournament will involve 68 teams, matching the size of the D-I men's tournament.
Prior to 1996, seeding was conducted on a regional basis. The top teams (eight in the 32-, 40-, and 48-team formats, and 16 in the 64-team format) were ranked and seeded on a national basis. The remaining teams were then seeded based on their geographic region. Teams were moved outside of its geographic region only if it was necessary to balance the bracket, or if the proximity of an opponent outside of its region would be comparable and a more competitive game would result. In 1993, all teams except for the top four were explicitly unseeded. The regional seeding resumed in 1994. In 1996, seeds were assigned on a national basis using an "S-Curve" format similar to the process used in selecting the field for the men's tournament.
The following table summarizes some of the key attributes of the seeding process:
| Number of teams selected | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Automatic ! At-large | Total ! Location of first round(s) | Seeding Basis | |||
| 1982 | 12 | 20 | 32 | Higher seed | align=center rowspan=14 | Regional |
| 1983 | 14 | 22 | 36 | Higher seed | ||
| 1984 | 17 | 15 | align=center rowspan=2 | 32 | ||
| 1985 | 18 | 14 | Higher seed | |||
| 1986 | 17 | 23 | align=center rowspan=3 | 40 | Higher seed | |
| 1987 | 18 | 22 | ||||
| 1988 | ||||||
| 1989 | 19 | 29 | align=center rowspan=5 | 48 | ||
| 1990 | 21 | 27 | ||||
| 1991 | ||||||
| 1992 | 22 | 26 | ||||
| 1993 | 23 | 25 | ||||
| 1994 | 32 | 32 | align=center rowspan=28 | 64 | ||
| 1995 | ||||||
| 1996 | 31 | 33 | Higher seed | align=center rowspan=28 | National | |
| 1997 | 30 | 34 | Higher seed | |||
| 1998 | Higher seed | |||||
| 1999 | ||||||
| 2000 | Higher seed | |||||
| 2001 | 31 | 33 | ||||
| 2002 | Higher seed | |||||
| 2003 | 16 Sites | |||||
| 2004 | ||||||
| 2005 | 8 Sites | |||||
| 2006 | ||||||
| 2007 | ||||||
| 2008 | ||||||
| 2009 | 16 Sites | |||||
| 2010 | ||||||
| 2011 | ||||||
| 2012 | ||||||
| 2013 | ||||||
| 2014 | 32 | 32 | ||||
| 2015 | Higher seed | |||||
| 2016 | ||||||
| 2017 | ||||||
| 2018 | ||||||
| 2019 | ||||||
| 2020 | ||||||
| 2021 | 31 | 33 | ||||
| 2022 | 32 | 36 | 68 | |||
A special selection committee appointed by the NCAA determines which 68 teams will enter the tournament, and where they will be seeded and placed in the bracket. Because of the automatic bids, only 36 teams (the at-large bids) rely on the selection committee to secure them a spot in the tournament.
| Team | Years | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| style= | 11 | 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 | |
| style= | 8 | 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008 | |
| style= | 3 | 2005, 2012, 2019 | |
| style= | 2017, 2022, 2024 | ||
| style= | 1990, 1992, 2021 | ||
| style= | 2 | 1982, 1988 | |
| style= | 2001, 2018 | ||
| style= | 1983, 1984 | ||
| style= | 1 | 2023 | |
| style= | 2006 | ||
| style= | 1994 | ||
| style= | 1985 | ||
| style= | 1999 | ||
| style= | 1986 | ||
| style= | 2011 | ||
| style= | 1993 |
| Coach | School | Championships |
|---|---|---|
| Geno Auriemma | UConn | 11 |
| Pat Summitt | Tennessee | 8 |
| Kim Mulkey | Baylor / LSU | 4 |
| Dawn Staley | South Carolina | 3 |
| Tara VanDerveer | Stanford | |
| Muffet McGraw | Notre Dame | 2 |
| Linda Sharp | Southern California |
Note: Conferences are listed by all champions' affiliations at that time; these do not necessarily match current affiliations.
| Conference | Year | Championships |
|---|---|---|
| Southeastern | 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008, 2017, 2022, 2023, 2024 | 12 |
| Big East | 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2013 | 9 |
| Pac-12 | 1983, 1984, 1990, 1992, 2021 | 5 |
| Big 12 | 2005, 2011, 2012, 2019 | 4 |
| American Athletic | 2014, 2015, 2016 | 3 |
| Atlantic Coast | 1994, 2006, 2018 | |
| Southwest | 1986, 1993 | 2 |
| Western Collegiate | 1983, 1984 | |
| American South | 1988 | 1 |
| Big Ten | 1999 | |
| Independent | 1982 | |
| Sun Belt | 1985 |
See also: NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament bids by school. Two hundred and eighty-three teams have appeared in the NCAA tournament in at least one year starting with 1982 (the initial year that the post-season tournament was under the auspices of the NCAA). The results for all years are shown in this table below.[5]
Since the women's tournament began in 1982, 20 teams have entered the tournament ranked #1 in at least 1 poll and gone on to win the tournament:
Only once has the reigning champion (the previous year's winner) not made it to the tournament the next year.
Since 1982, at least one #1 seed has made the Final Four every year.
Under coach Geno Auriemma, Connecticut has been seeded #1 a record 22 times. Tennessee is second with 21 #1 seeds.
All four #1 seeds have made it to the Final Four 4 times (champion in bold):
The championship game has matched two #1 seeds 15 times:
Three teams have beaten three #1 seeds during the course of a tournament (the largest number of such teams that can be faced) (all three teams won the national championship as beating a 3rd #1 seed in a single tournament can only happen in the finals):
Prior to the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams, all four #1 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with three exceptions. Notably, the first two times this occurred were at the hands of the same school:
See main article: NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament upsets.
Of the 20 teams who have entered the tournament unbeaten, 10 went on to win the National Championship.
The first record here refers to the record before the first game of the NCAA tournament.
| Year | Team | Record | Result | Final record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30–0 | 34–0 | ||||
| 29–0 | 32–1 | ||||
| 29–0 | 29–1 | ||||
| 28–0 | 28–1 | ||||
| 29–0 | 35–0 | ||||
| 30–0 | 33–1 | ||||
| 33–0 | 39–0 | ||||
| 28–0 | Lost in Round of 64 game to Tennessee | 28–1 | |||
| 33–0 | 39–0 | ||||
| 33–0 | 39–0 | ||||
| 33–0 | 39–0 | ||||
| 34–0 | 40–0 | ||||
| 32–0 | Lost in championship game to UConn | 37–1 | |||
| 34–0 | Won the tournament, beat Notre Dame | 40–0 | |||
| 30–0 | 31–1 | ||||
| 32–0 | 38–0 | ||||
| 32–0 | 36–1 | ||||
| 32–0 | 36–1 | ||||
| 32–0 | 36–1 | ||||
| 32–0 | 38–0 |
The NCAA tournament has undergone dramatic expansion since its first edition in 1982, and only one unbeaten team has failed to qualify for the tournament—California Baptist in 2021, which was 24–0 after winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament.[6] As, by definition, a team would have to win its conference tournament, and thus secure an automatic bid to the tournament, to be undefeated in a season, the only way a team could finish undefeated and not reach the tournament is if the team is banned from postseason play. (Other possibilities are that the team is independent, or is from a conference not yet eligible for an automatic bid.) Postseason bans can come about for one of two reasons:
Only one team has ever played the Final Four on its home court. Two other teams have played the Final Four in their home cities, and seven others have played the Final Four in their home states.
The only team to play on its home court was Texas in 1987, which lost its semifinal game at the now-defunct Frank Erwin Special Events Center.
Old Dominion enjoyed nearly as large an advantage in 1983 when the Final Four was played at the Norfolk Scope in its home city of Norfolk, Virginia, but also lost its semifinal. The Scope has never been the Monarchs' regular home court. ODU has always used on-campus arenas, first the ODU Fieldhouse and since 2002 Chartway Arena. The following year, USC won the national title at Pauley Pavilion, the home court of its Los Angeles archrival UCLA.
Of the other teams to play in their home states, Stanford (1992) won the national title; Notre Dame (2011) lost in the championship game; and Western Kentucky (1986), Penn State (2000), Missouri State (2001), LSU (2004), and Baylor (2010) lost in the semifinals.
7 championship games have featured two teams from the same conference (winner listed first and bolded):
See main article: List of NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament Final Four broadcasters. Broadcast rights to the NCAA women's basketball tournament are included in a larger package covering most NCAA Division I championships,[7] outside of men's basketball (which is held by CBS and TNT Sports),[8] and golf (which is held by Golf Channel).[9] ESPN has held exclusive rights to the tournament since 1996; beginning with an 11-year, $200 million contract renewal in 2003, ESPN would televise all 63 games in the tournament on television (increasing from 23), with games in the first and second rounds airing regionally on ESPN and ESPN2. Out-of-market games were carried via pay-per-view. Coverage later expanded to include ESPN's college sports-oriented network ESPNU, and ESPN360 for streaming.[10] In 2011, ESPN renewed this agreement through the 2023–24 season, in a deal reported to be worth $500 million in total. The deal also included rights to the men's tournament outside of the United States for ESPN International.[11] In 2024, ESPN renewed the contract again through 2032 (aligned with the end of the media rights for the men's tournament), in an agreement valued at $920 million over eight years.[12]
In the first two rounds, one channel (typically ESPN or ESPN2's high-definition feed) typically aired "whiparound" coverage during each window, carrying rolling coverage of all games in progress. ESPN's standard definition channels were used to broadcast games on a regional basis, while games could also be viewed in their entirety on ESPN3 or alternate channels.[10] In 2021, ESPN adopted a broadcast arrangement similar to the men's tournament, with all games airing nationally in their entirety on either an ESPN linear channel or, for the first time, ABC. The Women's Final Four and championship remained exclusive to ESPN.[13] Beginning in 2023, the national championship game has aired on ABC.[14]
In data issued by the NCAA in 2021, it was stated that 15.9% of the value of the contract was allocated to the women's tournament, or approximately $6.1 million annually. In comparison, the contract for the men's tournament is valued at over $700 million annually. Amid scrutiny of inequality between the men's and women's tournaments that year, it has been suggested by critics that the structure of the NCAA's contract undervalues the media rights to the women's tournament.[15] [16] Based on average viewership, Emily Caron and Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico estimated that the women's tournament could fetch at least $20 million per year if its media rights were sold separately. America East Conference commissioner Amy Huchthausen argued that the ESPN contract "provides a measure of financial certainty, but it does not provide women's basketball (or any of the other sports, for that matter) an incentive to grow".[17]
Following major media criticism of inequities between the 2021 men's and women's tournaments, the NCAA commissioned a comprehensive gender equity review of its championships by the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink. Among the report's findings was that U.S. television rights for the women's tournament would be worth at least $81 million annually by the time the current broadcast contract with ESPN expires in 2024 (in comparison to the $34 million value of the NCAA package as a whole).[18] [19]
In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on the day of the 2023 national championship, new NCAA president Charlie Baker implicated that the media rights to the women's basketball tournament may be sold separately in the next rights cycle, stating that "we do have an opportunity to put it out separately, and we're going to work really hard to make sure that those student-athletes, those schools, those programs get what I describe as what they should get."[20] Interest in Caitlin Clark's tournament run had led to record viewership of Iowa's Women's Final Four and championship games on ESPN and ABC, respectively.[14] [21]
Nevertheless, the NCAA renewed its existing agreements with ESPN in January 2024 under an eight-year agreement, with ESPN paying approximately $115 million per season, and the NCAA having valued the media rights to the Division I women's basketball tournament at $65 million. The agreement also includes expanded rights for ESPN to sell sponsorships (although CBS/WBD will still administer the NCAA Corporate Champion and Partner Program sponsorships per its rights to the men's tournament), and guarantees that the national championship will air on ABC annually.[22]