Selection Sunday for the women’s basketball NCAA tournament is under 30 days away.
On Sunday, the NCAA released its first top 16 seedings to preview what the field could look like when the brackets are revealed on Sunday, March 16. If the season ended today, UCLA would be the No. 1 overall seed. Defending national champion South Carolina, Texas, and Notre Dame would join the Bruins as No. 1 seeds.
Despite USC upending rival UCLA earlier in the week, the Trojans, LSU, UConn, and NC State project as the No. 2 seeds. TCU, Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas State project as the No. 3 seeds, while Kentucky, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Tennessee are the four seeds.
The Gamecocks and Huskies played each other on Sunday following the first NCAA rankings reveal. That game could also significantly impact future rankings.
Regional assignments were also given along with the brackets. UCLA ― which has never won an NCAA championship ― leads the Spokane Regional 1, joined by UCLA, LSU, Duke and Tennessee. The Birmingham 2 Regional included South Carolina, NC State, TCU and Oklahoma, while the Birmingham 3 Texas, UConn, North Carolina and Ohio State. The Spokane Regional 4 had Notre Dame, USC, Kansas State and Kentucky.
“With 29 days to go before Selection Sunday, this first reveal provided some clarity on the top teams today and also pointed to the many important matchups that will be played over the next several weeks that will greatly impact the 2025 championship field,” said Derita Dawkins, Arkansas assistant vice chancellor and deputy director of athletics and chair of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee.
The next top-16 reveal will occur on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. It will be the second of two rankings before the big reveal.
NCAA Tournament selection committee rankings
Here’s a full look at the top 16 teams and the regions in which they find themselves from Sunday’s NCAA tournament selection committee ranking unveiling:
Overall seed in parentheses
Spokane 1
1 seed: UCLA (1)
2 seed: LSU (6)
3 seed: Duke (10)
4 seed: Tennessee (16)
Birmingham 2
1 seed: South Carolina (2)
2 seed: NC State (8)
3 seed: TCU (9)
4 seed: Oklahoma (15)
Birmingham 3
1 seed: Texas (3)
2 seed: UConn (7)
3 seed: UNC (11)
4 seed: Ohio State (14)
Spokane 4
1 seed: Notre Dame (4)
2 seed: USC (5)
3 seed: Kansas State (12)
4 seed: Kentucky (13)
