March Madness: USC, UCLA, South Carolina and more all potential 1 seeds for women’s NCAA Tournament

For the first time in a long time, there are at least a half-dozen teams across the country that could legitimately win the women’s NCAA Tournament.

Defending champion South Carolina leads the way once again in March Madness. Unlike last season, when the Gamecocks finished off an undefeated season with a national title, this group has three losses heading into the NCAAs. One came early in the year to UCLA, which only lost twice this season — both to crosstown rival Southern California and star guard JuJu Watkins in the regular season. UCLA topped the Trojans for the Big Ten title.

Notre Dame, Texas and UConn also have a good shot at winning the national championship. South Carolina is a slight favorite over UConn to repeat, according to BetMGM Sportsbook going into the weekend.

All six teams’ chances could come down to where they fall in the bracket that the NCAA will reveal Sunday night.

The path for all won’t be easy: This year there’s more parity in the sport. This NCAA Tournament will be only the second one in the past 19 years to have no teams entering March Madness with zero or one loss. The other time was in 2022