March Madness: How to watch the women’s NCAA Tournament and what to watch for

By Canadian Press on March 21, 2025.

The women’s NCAA Tournament kicked off with expected blowouts, with a couple of exceptions.

No. 10 seed Oregon pulled off the biggest upset of the opening round, taking down No. 7 Vanderbilt in overtime, and fourth-seeded Kentucky had to hold off No. 13 Liberty for a one-point win.

Saturday’s slate of first round games will include No. 1 seeds USC and Texas, along with No. 2 seeds UConn and NC State.

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 at UConn to JuJu Watkins at USC, 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.

Games to watch

UConn vs. Arkansas State. All-American guard Bueckers kicks off her final bid for a national championship against the Sun Belt Conference champion Red Wolves.

Michigan State vs. Harvard. The Spartans have won 21 games this season, but could have their hands full with Harvard’s Harmoni Turner.

USC vs. UNC-Greensboro. Expect a big game from USC All-American Watkins after the Trojans lost to UCLA in the Big 10 Conference title game.

How can I watch the tournament?

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.

Who are the favorites?

The top four betting favorites as the tournament arrives are (in order): defending champion South Carolina, UConn, UCLA and USC, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

Who is playing?

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.

When are the games?

The First Four matchups were Wednesday-Thursday and first- and second-round games run Friday-Monday on campuses across the country. Sweet 16 weekend (March 28-31) will see games in 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.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The Associated Press