Topic summary
NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 76 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship.
The tournament was preceded by the AIAW women's basketball tournament, which was organized by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1972 to 1982. Basketball was one of 12 women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981–82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. The AIAW continued to conduct its established championship program in the same 12 (and other) sports; however, after a year of dual women's championships, the NCAA prevailed, while the AIAW disbanded.
As of the upcoming 2027 edition, the tournament follows almost exactly the same format and selection process as its men's counterpart, with 32 automatic bids awarded to the champions of the Division I conferences, and 44 "at-large bids" extended by the NCAA Selection Committee, which are placed into four regional divisions and seeded from 1 to 16. The 12 lowest-seeded automatic bids, and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large bids, compete in the Opening Round games to advance to the 64-team bracket in the first round. The national semi-finals, branded as the Women's Final Four, are traditionally scheduled on the same weekend as the men's Final Four, but in a different host city. Presently, the Women's Final Four uses a Friday/Sunday scheduling, with its games occurring one day prior to the men's Final Four and championship, respectively.
Attendance and interest in the women's championship have grown over the years, especially from 2003 to 2016, when the final championship game was moved to the Tuesday following the Monday men's championship game. The tournament is often overshadowed by the more prominent men's tournament; after a gender equality review following the 2021 tournament, the NCAA expanded it to the then-current 68-team format of the men's tournament and extended the "March Madness" branding to the tournament as well. Both tournaments were expanded to 76 teams starting with the 2027 editions. The 2024 women's championship was the first to receive higher viewership than the men's championship the same year. Still, the tournament receives a smaller amount of funding from broadcast rights (which are held by ESPN, and are pooled with those of other NCAA Division I championships besides golf and men's basketball) and sponsorship (which are sold by CBS and Turner Sports) than the men's tournament.
With 12 national titles, the UConn Huskies hold the record for the most NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championships, which includes a record four consecutive championships from 2013 through 2016. The team had also made the semi-finals for a record 14 consecutive tournaments. The Tennessee Lady Volunteers are the only team to make an appearance in every tournament since its founding in 1982.