Texas joins No. 1 in projected women’s NCAA Tournament seeds

Texas joined UConn, UCLA and South Carolina as the No. 1 seed in the latest women’s NCAA basketball tournament predictions 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 to finish sixth overall, up from 11th. Somers is 12th, up from 16th. Iowa and Oklahoma State have each won five straight games.

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 The only team to drop out of the top 16 since the first reveal is Ole Miss, which has been replaced by Minnesota, which is now at No. 15.

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

“We were all looking at it the same way,” Amanda Brown, chair of the NCAA women’s basketball selection committee, told The Associated Press. “In conversation it was very close, and the head-to-head matchup tipped the scales last time.” “The loss (to Georgia) set it back. Texas’ overall resume is stronger than Vanderbilt’s in a lot of 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 the top 16. Additionally, all four No. 4 seeds in each region are from the Big Ten.

“In every element we look at, the Big Ten has a lot of really good teams,” Brown told The Associated Press. “We don’t really know how many are in because we do it one by one, and then it’s seven of the top 16.”

The four major conference tournaments begin this week.

The NCAA on Sunday released both the seeds and projected regions into which teams will be divided. This year regional competitions will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, California. The women’s championship moved to a two-region system in 2023, with two champions being crowned in each location. The top 16 seeds host the first two rounds of the tournament.

“We had some conversations, obviously it’s not final, but we feel good about where we are (with first place),” Brown told the AP. “We look at it as what has happened since the last reveal and none of those (top three) have lost and had convincing wins against really good teams.

“Things could still happen in the next couple of weeks.”

Defending national champion UConn (30-0), the No. 1 overall seed and the only undefeated team in women’s Division I hoops, is expected to be in 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 Regional 2 are UCLA (No. 2 overall), Vanderbilt (No. 5), Duke (No. 10) and Ohio State (No. 16).

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

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

The NCAA will release the actual top 16 seedings in alphabetical order on March 14 as a teaser for the release of the full bracket on the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on March 15 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The first four matches will be held from March 18 to 19, while the first and second round matches will be held from March 20 to 23. That will be followed by the Sweet 16 from March 27-28 and the Elite Eight from March 29-30.

The women’s final will be held at the 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 the ABC/ESPN networks.