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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Women's Division I Basketball Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season. The NCAA tournament was preceded by the AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, which was held annually 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 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women 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.
Attendance and interest in the Women's Division I Championship have grown over the years, especially since 2003, when the final championship game was moved to the Tuesday following the Monday men's championship game.[1] The women's championship game is now the final overall game of the college basketball season. Before that, the Women's Final Four was usually played on the Friday before the Men's Final Four or the hours before the men played on the final Saturday of the tournament. The final was usually played the Sunday afternoon following the Men's Final Four.
The tournament bracket is made up of champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large bids, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) data.
Unlike the men's tournament, there are only 32 at-large bids (since 2014), and no play-in game. The women's tournament, like the men's, is staged in a single elimination format, and is part of the media and public frenzy known colloquially as March Madness or The Big Dance.
All 63 games have been broadcast on television since 2003 on ESPN and ESPN2.[2] Similar to the pre-2011 men's tournament coverage on CBS, local teams are shown on each channel when available, with "whip-around" coverage designed to showcase the most competitive contests in the rest of the country.
A total of 64 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. Of these teams, 32 earn automatic bids by winning their respective conference tournaments. Since the Ivy League does not conduct a post-season tournament, the regular-season conference champion receives an automatic bid. The remaining teams are granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. Dr. Marilyn McNeil, vice president/director of athletics at Monmouth University is the current chairwoman. On March 1, 2011, Bowling Green State University's director of intercollegiate athletics, Greg Christopher, was appointed chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee during the 2011–12 academic year.[3]
The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible. The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc.
The first NCAA women's basketball tournament was held in 1982. The AIAW also held a basketball tournament in 1982, but most of the top teams, including defending AIAW champion Louisiana Tech, decided to participate in the NCAA tournament.
The championship consisted of 32 teams from 1982–1985 (in 1983, 36), 40 teams from 1986–1988, and 48 teams from 1989–1993. Since 1994 64 teams compete in each tournament.
Prior to 1996, seeding was conducted on a regional basis. The top teams (eight in the 32-, 40-, and 48-team formats, and 16 in the 64-team format) were ranked and seeded on a national basis. The remaining teams were then seeded based on their geographic region. Teams were moved outside of its geographic region only if it was necessary to balance the bracket, or if the proximity of an opponent outside of its region would be comparable and a more competitive game would result. In 1993, all teams except for the top four were explicitly unseeded. The regional seeding resumed in 1994. In 1996, seeds were assigned on a national basis using an "S-Curve" format similar to the process used in selecting the field for the men's tournament.
The following table summarizes some of the key attributes of the seeding process:[4]
† Some exceptions. Due to venue availability, in some cases, the lower seed hosted, or the game was played at a neutral site ‡ From 2003-2014, sixteen predetermined sites were selected for first and second round games. Teams were allowed to play at home, if hosting. Between 2005 and 2008, eight sites were used for first round games
A special selection committee appointed by the NCAA determines which 64 teams will enter the tournament, and where they will be seeded and placed in the bracket. Because of the automatic bids, only 32 teams (the at-large bids) rely on the selection committee to secure them a spot in the tournament.
National Championship game winners in bold.
Note: Conferences are listed by all champions' affiliations at that time; these do not necessarily match current affiliations.
Since the women's tournament began in 1982, 15 teams have entered the tournament ranked #1 in at least 1 poll and gone on to win the tournament:
Only once has the reigning champion (the previous year's winner) not made it to the tournament the next year.
Since 1982, at least one #1 seed has made the Final Four every year.
All #1 seeds have made it to the Final Four thrice:
The championship game has matched two #1 seeds 12 times:
Three teams have beaten three #1 seeds during the course of a tournament (the largest number of such teams that can be faced):
Prior to the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams, all #1 seeds advanced to the Sweet Sixteen with three exceptions. Notably, the first two times this occurred were at the hands of the same school:
Lowest seeds to reach each round since the expansion to 64 teams:
Unlike in the men's tournament, no #14 seed has beaten a #3 and no #15 seed has beaten a #2 seed, but they have come close.
Since the expansion to 64 teams in 1994, each seed-pairing has played 88 first-round games overall.
Since the expansion to 64 teams in 1994, the following results have occurred for each pairing:
Of the 15 teams who have entered the tournament unbeaten, 8 went on to win the National Championship.[6]
Only one team has ever played the Final Four on its home court. Two other teams have played the Final Four in their home cities, and seven others have played the Final Four in their home states.
The only team to play on its home court was Texas in 1987, which lost its semifinal game at the Frank Erwin Special Events Center.
Old Dominion enjoyed nearly as large an advantage in 1983 when the Final Four was played at the Norfolk Scope in its home city of Norfolk, Virginia, but also lost its semifinal. The Scope has never been the Lady Monarchs' regular home court. ODU has always used on-campus arenas, first the ODU Fieldhouse and since 2002 the Ted Constant Convocation Center. The following year, USC won the national title at Pauley Pavilion, the home court of its Los Angeles arch-rival UCLA.
Of the other teams to play in their home states, Stanford (1992) won the national title; Notre Dame (2011) lost in the championship game; and Western Kentucky (1986), Penn State (2000), Missouri State (2001), LSU (2004), and Baylor (2010) lost in the semifinals.
5 championship games have featured two teams from the same conference:
267 teams have appeared in the NCAA Tournament in one or more years, between 1982 (the initial year that the post-season tournament was under the auspices of the NCAA) and 2015. The results for each year are summarised in the table below.[9]
The code in each cell represents the furthest the team made it in the respective tournament:
Pat Summitt, Holly Warlick, Tennessee, NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Southeastern Conference
Tulane University, Louisiana, New Orleans metropolitan area, French Quarter, Hurricane Katrina
American Athletic Conference, Connecticut, Connecticut Huskies, University of Connecticut, Big East Conference
Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech University, Conference USA, Teresa Weatherspoon, United States at the Olympics
Indianapolis, College football, Indiana, Canada, College baseball
Geno Auriemma, United States, NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Muffet McGraw, Pat Summitt
Atlantic Coast Conference, NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Women's National Basketball Association, Florida State Seminoles, Florida State University
Immaculata University, Delta State University, Old Dominion University, Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball, Southern Connecticut State University
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, Indiana, Pittsburgh, Conflict of interest
Canada, United States, Women's United Soccer Association, Women's sports, Women's National Basketball Association