UCLA is the highest general seed within the girls’s NCAA Event. The Bruins have been joined by South Carolina, Southern California and Texas because the No. 1 seeds that the NCAA revealed Sunday evening.
It’s the primary time in class historical past that the Bruins are the highest group within the event. That they had two losses on the season, each of which got here to the Trojans.
Daybreak Staley felt her group ought to get the No. 1 general seed, however in contrast to final yr when the Gamecocks completed off an undefeated season with a nationwide title, this group has three losses heading into March Insanity, together with one to the Bruins.
“Two key components between UCLA and South Carolina. One was the head-to-head matchup,” NCAA choice committee chair Derita Dawkins mentioned. “The opposite was one in every of our standards is aggressive in losses and South Carolina suffered a 29-point loss to UConn. These have been the 2 key variations in these resumes.”
Staley’s group is seeking to be the primary group to repeat as champion since UConn received 4 straight from 2013-16. The Huskies, who’re a two-seed, want to finish that drought with star Paige Bueckers. They’ll must exit west in the event that they attain the Candy 16 and a possible rematch with JuJu Watkins and the Trojans could possibly be ready within the Elite Eight.
The trail for all received’t be simple: This yr there’s extra parity within the sport. This NCAA Event shall be solely the second up to now 19 years to don’t have any groups getting into March Insanity with zero or one loss. The opposite time was in 2022.
The Trojans and Bruins, newcomers within the Large Ten this season, will attempt to win the primary nationwide championship for the convention since 1999, when Purdue received the lone one. A file 12 groups from the Large Ten are within the area. The SEC has 10 and the ACC eight. The Large 12 has seven.
The Ivy League acquired three bids to the event for the primary time in convention historical past. Final season, Columbia earned the second at-large bid in league historical past. The Lions are again once more in addition to Princeton. Each are 11 seeds and shall be competing in play-in video games. Harvard, which received the convention event, is a ten seed.
Duke, TCU and N.C. State joined the Huskies on the 2-seed line. Notre Dame boasts wins over Texas, USC and UConn however slumped the previous few weeks of the common season and fell to a three-seed.
William & Mary is one in every of six groups set to make its first look within the girls’s NCAA Event. The others are Arkansas State, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Mason, Grand Canyon and UC San Diego. 4 groups are headed to the lads’s event for the primary time: Excessive Level, Omaha, SIU Edwardsville and UC San Diego.
The Tribe (15-18) are the primary sub-.500 group since Incarnate Phrase in 2022 to make the event.
Virginia Tech, James Madison, Saint Joseph’s and Colorado have been the primary 4 groups omitted of the sector.
Payout time
For the primary time in NCAA historical past, there shall be a monetary incentive for ladies’s groups. They may lastly paid for taking part in video games within the NCAA Event identical to the lads have for years.
So-called efficiency models, which symbolize income, shall be given to girls’s groups for every win they get. A group that reaches the Ultimate 4 may deliver its convention roughly $1.26 million over the following three years in monetary efficiency rewards.
This comes a yr after the ladies’s championship recreation that noticed South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa do higher TV rankings then the lads’s title recreation.
Event websites
The highest 16 seeds within the 68-team area will host first- and second-round video games, with the regional rounds being performed at two impartial websites for the third straight yr. Spokane, Washington, will host half of the Candy 16 and Birmingham, Alabama, will host the opposite eight groups.
The Ultimate 4 shall be performed in Tampa, Florida, on April 4, and the championship recreation is 2 days later.
Event tidbits
One group that didn’t make the sector was Stanford, which ended the Cardinal’s 36-year streak of taking part in within the NCAA Event. It’s the primary time since 1987 that Stanford received’t play within the NCAAs. Whereas that streak is over, Tennessee continued its NCAA Event run of showing yearly within the area because the first NCAA Event in 1982. The Girl Vols are a five-seed.
