Why This Year’s Women’s March Madness Is Breaking All the Rules—and Expectations

Quite simply, there appears to be a larger group of legitimate national championship contenders. Conveniently, it’s occurring while women’s basketball enjoys unprecedented popularity.

Four teams have been No. 1 in the AP rankings this season – that’s the most since the 2020-21 season – and three of them – Texas, Notre Dame and UCLA – aren’t even the No. 1 seed in their respective conference tournament. South Carolina is the only one from the group.

This season has been so competitive that UConn, which has won a record 11 NCAA championships and advanced to the Final Four 23 times under the sport’s winningest coach, Geno Auriemma, hasn’t been No. 1 in the AP poll, although the Huskies’ recent hot stretch has made them first in TRACR, our net efficiency Team Rating Adjusted for Conference and Roster.

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