UT joins No. 1s in women's NCAA seed projections

Texas joined UConn, UCLA and South Carolina as the No. 1 seeds in the women's NCAA basketball tournament's latest projections announced Sunday on ESPN, with Iowa and Oklahoma making the biggest jumps since the first reveal of the top 16 seeds on Feb. 14.

The Hawkeyes are now projected as the No. 6 seed overall, up from No. 11. The Sooners are No. 12, up from No. 16. Iowa and Oklahoma both have won five in a row.

The biggest drop was Ohio State, which fell from No. 9 to No. 16. The only team that fell out of the top 16 from the first reveal is Ole Miss, which was replaced by Minnesota, which is now No. 15.

Vanderbilt, which beat Texas on Feb. 12, was the fourth No. 1 seed in the initial projections on Feb. 14. However, after losing to Georgia the following day, the Commodores fell behind the Longhorns during Sunday's reveal as those two SEC teams switched places.

"We were all viewing it the same way, in the conversation it was so close and that head-to-head tipped the scales last time," NCAA women's basketball selection committee chair Amanda Braun told The Associated Press. "The loss [to Georgia] tipped it back. The overall résumé of Texas is stronger than Vanderbilt in a few different ways."

Overall, there are seven teams from the Big Ten, five from the SEC, two from the ACC, one from the Big 12 and one from the Big East in this top 16. In addition, all four of the No. 4 seeds in each region are from the Big Ten.

"Every element we look at, the Big Ten has a lot of really good teams," Braun told The Associated Press. "We don't really know how many are going in as we are doing it one by one and then they are seven of the best 16."

The four major-conference tournaments begin this week.

The NCAA on Sunday released both the seeds and the projected regions that teams would be slotted into. The regionals this year are in Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, California. The women's tournament moved to a two-region system in 2023, with two champions crowned at each site. The top 16 seeds host the first two rounds of the tournament.

"We had some conversations, obviously it's not all cut and dry, but we feel good where we landed [with the No. 1s]," Braun told the AP. "We do look at it as what has happened since last reveal and none of those [top] three lost and had pretty convincing wins against really good teams.

"Things can still happen in the next two weeks."

Defending national champion UConn (30-0), the overall No. 1 seed and the only unbeaten team in Division I women's hoops, is projected into the Fort Worth 1 regional, along with LSU (No. 7 seed overall), Louisville (No. 9) and Maryland (No. 13.)

UConn is seeking the program's seventh perfect season and 13th national championship.

In the Sacramento 2 regional are UCLA (No. 2 overall), Vanderbilt (No. 5), Duke, (No. 10) and Ohio State (No. 16).

The Fort Worth 3 regional is led by No. 3 overall seed South Carolina, along with Michigan (No. 8), TCU (No. 11) and Minnesota (No. 15).

In the Sacramento 4 regional, Texas is the No. 4 overall seed and joined by Iowa (No. 6), Oklahoma (No. 12) and Michigan State (No. 14).

The NCAA will release the actual top 16 seeds in alphabetical order on March 14 as a teaser toward the full bracket release on the NCAA tournament selection show on March 15 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The First Four games are March 18-19, with first- and second-round games taking place March 20-23. Those will be followed by the Sweet 16 on March 27-28 and the Elite Eight on March 29-30.

The women's Final Four will be held at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, with semifinal games on April 3 and the national championship game on April 5.

All women's NCAA tournament games are on ABC/ESPN networks.