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2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

The 2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a 68-team single-elimination tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 43rd edition of the tournament began on March 19, 2025, and concluded with the championship game on April 6, at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The UConn Huskies won their 12th national championship by defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Atlantic 10 champion George Mason, Big West champion UC San Diego, NEC champion Fairleigh Dickinson, Sun Belt champion Arkansas State, WAC champion Grand Canyon, and CAA champion William & Mary all made their NCAA tournament debuts. Additionally, SoCon champion UNC Greensboro made their first appearance since 1998 and second appearance overall. For the first time since 1987, Stanford did not qualify for the tournament.

For the first time in Women's March Madness history since expanding to 64-plus teams, no team successfully completed an official upset, defined by the NCAA as by five or more seeding lines, an occurrence which has never happened in the Men's tournament. The closest any team came to an upset was 13-seed Liberty, who lost in the Round of 64 to 4-seed Kentucky by 1 point in a 79–78 loss.

Tournament procedure

Out of 355 eligible Division I teams, 68 participated in the tournament. A total of 31 automatic bids are awarded to each program that win a conference tournament. The remaining 37 bids are issued "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee on Selection Sunday, March 16. The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 68.

Eight teams (the four-lowest seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at large-teams) play in the First Four. The winners of these games will advance to the main tournament bracket.

2025 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues

First Four

Subregionals (First and Second Rounds)

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

Tampa is scheduled to host the women's Final Four for the fourth time; the third was in 2019.

Qualification and selection of teams

The 68 teams came from 36 states.

Automatic qualifiers

Teams who won their conference championships automatically qualify.

<span id="RegionSeeds">Seeds</span>

<section begin="RegionSeeds" /> The tournament seeds and regions are determined through the NCAA basketball tournament selection process and were published by the selection committee after the brackets are released on March 16.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>See First Four<br/> Source: <section end="RegionSeeds" />

Tournament bracket

All times are listed in Eastern Daylight Time ().

First Four

The First Four games involve eight teams: the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams.

Spokane regional 1 – Spokane, WA

Spokane regional 1 final

Spokane regional 1 all-tournament team

  • Lauren Betts (UCLA)
  • Gabriela Jaquez (UCLA)
  • Flau'jae Johnson (LSU)
  • Aneesah Morrow (LSU)
  • Kiki Rice (UCLA)

Spokane regional 4 – Spokane, WA

Spokane 4 regional final

Spokane 4 regional all-tournament team

  • Paige Bueckers - UConn (Most Outstanding Player)
  • Rayah Marshall – USC
  • Kennedy Smith – USC
  • Serena Sundell - Kansas State
  • Sarah Strong – UConn

Birmingham regional 2 – Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham regional 2 final

Birmingham regional 2 all-tournament team

Birmingham regional 3 – Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham regional 3 final

Birmingham regional 3 all-tournament team

Final Four – Tampa, Florida

National semifinals

National championship

Final Four all-tournament team

Record by conference

  • The FF, R64, R32, S16, E8, F4, CG, and NC columns indicate how many teams from each conference were in the first four, round of 64 (first round), round of 32 (second round), Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game, and national champion, respectively.

Game summaries and tournament notes

The seeds of the teams who qualified for the Elite Eight was the same in both the men’s and women’s tournaments. In both tournaments, there were four #1 seeds, three #2 seeds, and one #3 seed.

Tournament upsets

Per the NCAA, an upset occurs "when the losing team in an NCAA tournament game was seeded at least five seed lines better than the winning team."

For the first time in NCAA women’s March Madness history since expanding to 64 teams, no team successfully completed an official upset. In addition, this was also the first time no team completed an upset in the Round of 64 alone, meaning no team seeded 11th or lower won in the first round. Both events have never occurred in the men’s tournament since its expansion to 64 teams.

In addition, no team seeded 6th through 10th won their Round of 32 game, ensuring the tournament would have no upsets following the loss of the final such team remaining.

Media coverage

Television

ESPN broadcast each game of the tournament across either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, or ABC. For the third consecutive season, the national championship game aired on ABC.

Studio host and analysts

  • Elle Duncan (host) (first four, first/second rounds, regionals, Final Four, and national championship)
  • Kelsey Riggs (host) (first/second rounds and regional semifinals)
  • Andraya Carter (analyst) (first four, first/second rounds, regionals, Final Four and national championship)
  • Chiney Ogwumike (analyst) (first/second rounds, regionals, Final Four and national championship)
  • Muffet McGraw (analyst) (first/second rounds and regional semifinals)
  • Meghan McKeown (analyst) (first/second rounds and regional semifinals)
  • Lisa Mattingly (rules analyst) (first four, first/second rounds, and regionals)
  • Violet Palmer (rules analyst) (first four, first/second rounds, regionals, Final Four, and national championship)

Commentary teams

First Four

First & second rounds Friday/Sunday (Subregionals)

First & second rounds Saturday/Monday (Subregionals)

  • Roy Philpott and Jimmy Dykes – Baton Rouge, Louisiana
  • Wes Durham and Angela Taylor – Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Eric Frede, Christy Thomaskutty, and Holly Rowe – Los Angeles, California (USC)
  • Kevin Fitzgerald and Kim Adams – Norman, Oklahoma
  • Jay Alter and Helen Williams – College Park, Maryland
  • Angel Gray and Aja Ellison – Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  • Tiffany Greene and Steffi Sorensen – Austin, Texas
  • Brenda VanLengen and Andrea Lloyd-Curry – Fort Worth, Texas

Regionals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)

  • Pam Ward, Stephanie White, and Holly Rowe – Spokane, Washington (Regional 1 – Sweet 16 games only)
  • Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo, and Holly Rowe – Spokane, Washington (Regional 4 – Sweet 16/Regionals 1 & 4 – Elite Eight)
  • Courtney Lyle, Carolyn Peck, and Kris Budden – Birmingham, Alabama (Regional 2)
  • Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli, and Angel Gray – Birmingham, Alabama (Regional 3)

Final Four and National Championship

  • Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo, and Holly Rowe – Tampa, Florida

Radio

Westwood One will serve as radio broadcaster of the tournament.

Regionals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)

  • Lance Medow and Kim Adams – Spokane, Washington 1
  • Sam Neidermann and Mary Murphy – Spokane, Washington 4
  • Danny Reed and Debbie Antonelli – Birmingham, Alabama 2
  • Nate Gatter and Isis Young – Birmingham, Alabama 3

Final Four and National Championship

  • Ryan Radtke, Debbie Antonelli, and Ros Gold-Onwude – Tampa, Florida

See also

References

External links