Women's basketball has not slowed down at all this season as March Madness arrives.
A year ago, the women's NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men's title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. The question was whether some fans would step away as Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and other standouts headed to the WNBA.
Instead, the women's game has featured a compelling bunch of stars all over again, from Paige Bueckers at UConn to JuJu Watkins at USC, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and Madison Booker of Texas.
It is UCLA that takes the overall No. 1 seed into this year's tournament.
The season has been must-watch viewing for another reason, too: Parity. Four teams held the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25, tying the mark for the most ever, and this NCAA Tournament will be only the second one in the past 19 years to have no teams with zero or one loss. The other time was in 2022.
Games to watch
No. 10 seed Harvard and Harmoni Turner take a shot at No. 7 seed Michigan State.
No. 10 seed Oregon travels across the country to play 7 seed Vanderbilt and prolific freshman scorer Mikayla Blakes.
No. 14 seed Florida Gulf Coast has to play 3 seed Oklahoma on the Sooners' home floor but this is a team whose 23-year head coach left early in the season for the WNBA and hasn't lost since Dec. 16 while going 30-3.
How can I watch the tournament?
Every game of the women's tournament will be aired — here is a schedule that will be updated with matchups — on ESPN's networks and streaming services with select games on ABC.
Who are the favorites?
The top four betting favorites as the tournament arrives are (in order): defending champion South Carolina, UConn, UCLA and USC, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
Who is playing?
There are 31 automatic bids that went to conference champions and they were combined with 37 at-large picks by the NCAA selection committee. Selection Sunday unveiled the bracket matchups.
When are the games?
The First Four matchups are Wednesday-Thursday and first- and second-round games run Friday-Monday on campuses across the country. Sweet 16 weekend (March 28-31) will see games in two sites once again: Birmingham, Alabama, and Spokane, Washington.
The Final Four is in Tampa, Florida, on Friday, April 4, with the championship game on Sunday, April 6.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
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