Undefeated South Carolina, Caitlin Clark’s Iowa, Southern California and Texas earned the four No. 1 seeds in the women’s NCAA Tournament when the bracket was revealed Sunday night.
The Gamecocks (32-0) and coach Dawn Staley received the No. 1 overall seed for the third tournament in a row. They survived a test from Tennessee in the semifinal thanks to a buzzer-beater and beat rival LSU in the final to win the SEC tournament last week.
After falling to Iowa in the Final Four last year, South Carolina will begin its quest for another national title against the winner of a play-in game between Sacred Heart and Presbyterian.
South Carolina and Iowa (29-4) will play in Regionals 1 and 2 in Albany, N.Y. USC (26-5) and Texas (30-4) are the No. 1 seeds in Regionals 3 and 4, centered in Portland, Ore.
The first and second rounds will be played on campus sites of the top four seeds in each region, while Albany and Portland will serve as the two regional sites. The Final Four will be played in Cleveland, Ohio on April 5 and 7.
The No. 2 seeds are Notre Dame (26-6) in Regional 1, UCLA (25-6) in Regional 2, Ohio State (25-5) in Regional 3 and Stanford (28-5) in Regional 4.
Entering the day, it was uncertain whether Big 12 champion Texas or Pac-12 runner-up Stanford would earn the fourth and final No. 1 seed.
The No. 3 seed in Regional 2 is defending national champion LSU (28-5), meaning a rematch of last year’s record-setting title game aganst Iowa could occur in the Elite Eight.
The Pac-12, in its last league as a bona fide conference, got seven teams into the tournament: USC, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon State, Colorado, Utah and Arizona.
Of note, the Ivy League got two teams into the field: Conference champion Princeton (25-4) is the No. 9 seed and could be an obstacle for the Hawkeyes in the second round in Iowa City. Columbia (23-6), which lost to Princeton in the Ivy title game, was given its first March Madness bid in program history as an at-large into the First Four. The Lions will face Vanderbilt on the 12-seed line in Regional 3.
–Field Level Media