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With so much to keep track of for the 2025 Women's NCAA Tournament, this is the perfect time to look at some of the major storylines from the season, as well as some interesting facts about the Big Dance.
Selection Sunday takes place this Sunday, and CBS Sports bracketologist Connor Groel has determined the No. 1 seeds are all locked up. Beyond that, plenty of intrigue should emerge across the field.
Women's Bracketology: UCLA retakes top position as No. 1 seeds are locked up
Connor Groel
March Madness begins with the First Four on March 19-20. The champion will be crowned in Amalie Arena in Tampa on April 6.
With the Big Dance rapidly approaching, here's everything you need to know to be prepared for the action.
25 things to know ahead of 2025 NCAAWT
| 1 |  |
| UCLA is going to be a No. 1 seed for the first time in program history. The Bruins have never won an NCAA Tournament, and they have only made it to the Elite Eight in 1999 and 2018. This is their first season with 30+ wins, and it happened in their inaugural season in the Big Ten. | |
| 2 |  |
| UConn holds the record for most national championships with 11, all under coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies haven't won it all since 2016, but they typically made deep runs. UConn has made 15 of the last 16 Final Fours. | |
| 3 | |
| UConn star Paige Bueckers is likely playing her last NCAA Tournament before heading to the WNBA, where she is expected to be the No. 1 overall draft pick. Bueckers was part of the UConn team that reached the 2022 national championship game, but she is still chasing her first national title. | |
| 4 |  |
| South Carolina won last year's national championship and completed an undefeated season in the process. Dawn Staley's Gamecocks have won two of the last three NCAA Tournaments and are considered a budding dynasty. | |
| 5 | |
| The No. 1 seeds earned their status by playing the best opponents. South Carolina had the toughest strength of schedule this season, according to Warren Nolan. Texas had the second toughest, while USC had the fourth and UCLA had the sixth. | |
| 6 |  |
| Tennessee has the longest active streak of appearances in the Big Dance. The Lady Vols are the only team to play in every single Women's NCAA tournament since the first in 1982. This will be their 43rd consecutive appearance. | |
| 7 |  |
| Stanford had the second-longest streak of NCAA Tournament appearances (36), but that is almost certainly ending. The retirement of Tara VanDerveer, conference realignment, and the loss of last season's top players have sent the Cardinal into rebuilding mode. Losing in the first round of the ACC Tournament sealed their unfortunate fate. | |
| 8 |  |
| Texas was a No. 1 seed last year and made it all the way to the Elite Eight. The Longhorns are a No. 1 seed again after getting a share of the SEC regular-season title and making it to the championship game in their inaugural season in the conference. Vic Schaefer's team was ranked as high as No. 1 in the AP Top 25 this season, which hadn't happened since 2004. | |
| 9 |  |
| The first NCAA men's basketball tournament was held in 1939 with Oregon as the inaugural champion. The first Women's NCAA Tournament was in 1982, and it was won by Louisiana Tech. LSU coach Kim Mulkey was part of that roster. | |
| 10 |  |
| Mulkey is the only person in college basketball history, men's or women's, to win national championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach. Her most recent trophy was in 2023, when the Tigers earned the first basketball national title in school history. | |
| 11 | |
| LSU fell to Texas in the 2025 SEC semifinals, but it happened while leading scorer Flau'Jae Johnson sat out so she could recover from shin inflammation. Johnson will be available for the Big Dance, and so will double-double machine Aneesah Morrow, who had an injury scare during the Texas game. The Tigers won the 2023 national championship and made it to the Elite Eight last season behind the leadership of now-Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese. | |
| 12 |  |
| USC won the NCAA Tournament twice in the 1980s, but the Trojans had not made a deep run in decades until reaching the Elite Eight last year. JuJu Watkins helped revitalize the team while breaking the all-time Division I freshman scoring record. As a sophomore, she is considered one of the top candidates for Player of the Year along with UCLA's Lauren Betts and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo. | |
| 13 |  |
| Vanderbilt made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade last year, and now the Commodores have one of the most exciting freshmen this season in Mikayla Blakes. She has registered two 50+ point games, including 55 points to set the NCAA freshman record in the Commodores' 98-88 win over Auburn on Feb. 16. | |
| 14 |  |
| TCU is back in the tournament for the first time since 2010 after winning both the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles. Mark Campbell took over the program in 2023, and the addition of LSU transfer Hailey Van Lith gave the Horned Frogs the extra push they needed to level up. | |
| 15 |  |
| The Oregon State Beavers experienced the collapse of the Pac-12, and their 2024 Elite Eight roster took a huge hit because of the transfer portal. They've lost 15 games this season and were almost written off an NCAA Tournament berth. However, they gave us a feel-good story by winning the WCC tournament and earning an automatic bid despite all the struggles. | |
| 16 |  |
| Iowa has reached the title game the past two years, but it happened with Division I all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark, who is now in the WNBA. Longtime coach Lisa Lisa Bluder retired and now it's Jan Jensen leading the team in this rebuilding period. These are not the same Hawkeyes as before, but they did stun some solid teams this season, including the USC Trojans in February. | |
| 17 |  |
| A Big Ten team has only won the women's NCAA Tournament once, and it was Purdue in 1999. Maryland and USC have also won it all, but they were in different conferences at the time. | |
| 18 |  |
| Notre Dame has the best backcourt in the nation with Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, but the Fighting Irish are going through a bit of a slump having lost three of their past five games. They weren't able to defend their ACC Tournament title as they fell to Duke in the semifinals. | |
| 19 |  |
| Kentucky missed the Big Dance the past two years, but the Wildcats are back under the guidance of first-year coach Kenny Brooks. Brooks took Virginia Tech to the Final Four in 2023 and Georgia Amoore, who followed Brooks to Kentucky, was a key part of that run. | |
| 20 |  |
| In women's basketball, No. 14-16 seeds are a combined 1-360 in Women's NCAA Tournament history. The lowest seed to win the title since the expansion to 64 teams in 1994 is No. 3, and it has only happened three times: North Carolina in 1994, Tennessee in 1997 and LSU in 2023. | |
| 21 |  |
| During the 2024 Women's NCAA Tournament, higher seeds went 31-1 in the first round. That was the best record by better seeds in the opening round of the tournament since 1994. The only team to fall was No. 6 seed Louisville, who blew an 18-point lead and got upset by No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee, 71-69. | |
| 22 | |
| Last year was the first time since 2012 that the top No. 1 seeds in the men's and women's tournaments (UConn men and South Carolina women) won the title. | |
| 23 | |
| Tampa, Florida is hosting the NCAA Women's Final Four for a record fourth time. Tennessee won there in 2008, UConn in 2015 and Baylor in 2019. | |
| 24 | |
| For the first time in women's college basketball, teams will get paid for participating and advancing in the NCAA Tournament. The men's tournament has been doing it for years. | |
| 25 | |
| A total of 66 schools in Division I have never played in the Women's NCAA Tournament. | |
