Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
The first round of the women's NCAA Tournament is complete and all the high seeds are still alive.
The opening round only had a couple of upsets, including No. 10 seed North Dakota State over No. 7 Oklahoma State on Saturday.
Now the tension will ratchet up with spots in next week's Sweet 16 on the line.
No. 1 seed South Carolina is among the teams playing on Sunday in its bid to win a third national championship in four years. UCLA, another top seed, also plays, along with No. 2 seeds Duke and TCU.
A year ago, the women's NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men's title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. The question was whether some fans would step away as Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and other standouts headed to the WNBA.
Instead, the women's game has featured a compelling bunch of stars all over again, from Paige Bueckers of UConn to JuJu Watkins of Southern California, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and Madison Booker of Texas.
The season has been must-watch viewing for another reason, too: parity. Four teams held the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25, tying the mark for the most ever, and this NCAA Tournament will be only the second one in the past 19 years to have no teams with zero or one loss. The other time was in 2022.
Ohio State vs. Tennessee, Sunday. The Buckeyes had five players score in double figures in a blowout of Montana State in the first round. They'll need that kind of depth against the Vols, who have a rapid-fire substitution pattern under first-year coach Kim Caldwell.
Duke vs. Oregon, Sunday. The Blue Devils overwhelmed No. 15 seed Lehigh 86-25 behind a stellar defensive performance. Duke will likely face a much stiffer challenge against the 10th-seeded Ducks, who pulled off one of the bracket's few early upsets by beating Vanderbilt in overtime.
South Carolina vs. Indiana, Sunday. The Hoosiers gave the Gamecocks a run for their money in the Sweet 16 a year ago, overcoming most of a 22-point deficit before losing by two. South Carolina opened this year's bracket with a blowout of Tennessee Tech while Indiana played a much tighter game, beating Utah 76-68.
Every game of the women's tournament will be aired — here is a schedule that will be updated with matchups — on ESPN's networks and streaming services with select games on ABC.
The top four betting favorites as the tournament arrives are (in order): defending champion South Carolina, UConn, UCLA and USC, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
There are 31 automatic bids that went to conference champions and they were combined with 37 at-large picks by the NCAA selection committee. Selection Sunday unveiled the bracket matchups.
First- and second-round games run Friday to Monday on campuses across the country. Sweet 16 weekend (March 28-31) will see games at two sites once again: Birmingham, Alabama, and Spokane, Washington.
The Final Four is in Tampa, Florida, on Friday, April 4, with the championship game on Sunday, April 6.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.
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