Women’s March Madness 2026: Elite Eight Rankings

Welcome to the party, Michigan and Notre Dame. To everyone else in the Elite Eight, it’s like they never left.

The other six teams that qualified for the Women’s Elite Eight played in the regional finals a year ago. That doesn’t mean it’s the same, though. UConn no longer has Paige Bueckers. UCLA added Gianna Knipkens, and South Carolina brought Tanya Latson on board. TCU has a very different look with Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez.

All four No. 1 seeds and heavy favorites to reach the Final Four haven’t had much trouble getting to this point. The closest matchup between UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina was the Bruins’ 19-point win over Oklahoma State in the second round. The foursome’s average margin of victory in the regional semifinals was 23.3 points.

The No. 2 seed wasn’t so lucky: Michigan was the only one remaining.

Notre Dame was a perennial power just a few years ago, but now, as a sixth seed, it qualifies as a Cinderella. The Fighting Irish played UConn, Michigan and Duke (twice) this season, losing all four of those games by an average of 23 points. But the Irish have the most exciting player in the NCAA Tournament in Hannah Hidalgo.

However, it wasn’t enough to prevent Notre Dame from being last in the updated Elite Eight rankings. Will Hidalgo be enough to pull off a tournament upset and beat No. 1 UConn? Here’s a look at the final eight.

1. UConn Huskies
Original seed: No. 1 overall (Fort Worth 1)
results: Def. No. 16 UTSA 90-52 (first round); Def. No. 9 Syracuse 98-45 (32nd round); Def. No. 4 North Carolina 63-42 (Sweet 16)

The Huskies entered the NCAA Tournament with the top-rated defense in the country. And on Friday against North Carolina, they presented evidence. Despite playing its worst offensive game of the season and scoring 25 points below its season average, UConn still passed the Tar Heels. Making just 4 of 20 3-pointers seems impossible for the nation’s most accurate deep shooting team entering the game, but the Huskies struggled to make shots throughout the entire contest. Getting 18 steals and forcing 24 turnovers definitely helped. UConn is now one game away from Final 25. The Huskies haven’t lost a regional final game since 2007, during Tina Charles’ junior year.

the next: vs. Notre Dame (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ABC)

2. UCLA Bruins

Original seed: No. 1 (Secret 2)
results: Def. No. 16 Cal Baptist 96-43 (first round); Def. #8 Oklahoma State 87-68 (Round 32); Def. No. 4 Minnesota 80-56 (Sweet 16)

With six seniors, all 1,000-point scorers, the Bruins need this to be their year. Maybe that’s why, in two of the Bruins’ NCAA Tournament victories, most of the urgency came in the second half. UCLA outscored Minnesota by 19 points in the final 20 minutes on Friday and advanced to its second straight regional final. UCLA ranks second in the country in effective field goal percentage, points per scoring attempt and points per game. That kind of efficiency has fueled the Bruins through their first three tournament games. No player embodies that more than Lauren Bates, who shoots 31-of-43 from the field and averages 24.3 points in March Madness.

the next: vs. Duke (Sunday, 3 p.m., ABC)

3. Texas Longhorns
Original seed: No. 1 (Fort Worth 3)
results: Def. #16 Missouri State 87-45 (1st round); Def. No. 8 Oregon 100-58 (round of 32); Def. No. 5 Kentucky 76-54 (Sweet 16)

Vic Schaefer said he didn’t like his team’s third-quarter performance against Kentucky, but the truth is the Longhorns were one of the most dominant teams in the NCAA Tournament. They won three games by an average margin of 35.3 points. Texas’ shooting percentages have improved across the board compared to the regular season, and the Longhorns just forced 24 more turnovers than a Wildcats team that averaged fewer than 13 per game during the regular season. Texas lost that third quarter to Kentucky 19-18, but it’s the only quarter the Longhorns haven’t won so far in this tournament.

the next: vs. Michigan (Monday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN)

4. South Carolina Gamecocks
Original seed: No. 1 (Secret 4)
results: Def. No. 16 South 103-34 (first round); Defeated No. 9 USC 101-61 (round of 32); Def. No. 4. Oklahoma 94-68 (Sweet 16)

No doubt, getting revenge on the team that handed South Carolina its only SEC regular-season loss was secondary to the greater motivation of advancing to a fifth straight Elite Eight, but the Gamecocks played like a team that wouldn’t leave anything to chance this time against Oklahoma. South Carolina never trailed in Saturday’s regional semifinal, and after losing by 12 to the Sooners on Jan. 22, it prevailed by 26. The biggest difference for the Gamecocks was Ta’Niya Latson, a Florida State transfer who was playing in her first game in the Sweet 16. In the first meeting in Norman, Latson scored six points. On Saturday, she led all scorers with 28 goals, looking like the player who led the country in scoring last season as a Seminole could make the difference in South Carolina, which ended its national championship run.

the next: vs. TCU (Monday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN)

5. Michigan Wolverines
Original seed: No. 2 (Fort Worth 3)
results: Def. No. 15 Holy Cross 83-48 (first round); Def. No. 7 NC State 92-63 (Round of 32); Def. No. 3 Louisville 71-52 (Sweet 16)

The Wolverines have been one of the most explosive teams in the NCAA Tournament. They started this run — for their second Elite Eight appearance in program history — with a 27-6 first-quarter run against Holy Cross. In the second round, against NC State, Michigan came out of the locker room to score 64 second-half points. A pair of 18-0 runs, one in each half, led to a 19-point win over Louisville on Saturday. All of that spurt was due to the pressure of the Wolverines, who helped generate a tournament-high 60 turnovers, as well as the play of Olivia Olson and Syla Swords, who combined to average 37.6 points per game.

the next: vs. Texas (Monday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN)

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Louisville Cardinals vs. Michigan Wolverines: Game highlights

Louisville Cardinals vs. Michigan Wolverines: Game highlights

6. Duke Blue Devils
Original seed: No. 3 (Secret 2)
results: Def. and No. 14 Charleston 81-64 (first round); Def. No. 6 Baylor 69-46 (round of 32); Def. No. 2 LSU 87-85 (Sweet 16)

If Duke had played UCLA earlier in the season – because revenge seems to be a matter for the Blue Devils. For the second straight NCAA Tournament game, Duke beat a team it had lost to earlier in the campaign. Duke topped Baylor in the second round. Three and a half months after a 16-point loss to LSU, the Blue Devils survived the Tigers on an Ashlon Jackson 3-pointer at the buzzer. Kara Lawson’s team has gone from failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in her first full year to making back-to-back trips to the Elite Eight. The Final Four appearance will be Duke’s first since 2006, when Gail Goestenkors was the coach. Friday’s 87 points by Duke’s sometimes uneven offense was the most since Feb. 8 against SMU.

the next: vs. UCLA (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, ABC)

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Duke wins at the buzzer as Ashlon Jackson rolls the 3 in

Ashlon Jackson fired a shot at the buzzer that went down as Duke stunned LSU to move to the Elite Eight.

7. TCU horned frogs
Original seed: No. 3 (Secret 4)
results: Def. No. 14 UC San Diego 86-40 (first round); Def. No. 6 Washington 62-59 in overtime (round of 32); Def. No. 10 Virginia 79-69 (Sweet 16)

The Horned Frogs have relied on the combination of Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez throughout the season. Coach Mark Campbell referred to the duo as Batman and Robin, and wasn’t specific about which character they were. But TCU reached the Sweet 16 leaning heavily on Miles, who averaged a triple-double through the first two rounds. Suarez, who scored nearly 17 points per game in the regular season, was 8 of 26 from the field during TCU’s first two tournament cycles while averaging 10 points. The Frogs got their second star producing well again against Virginia. In fact, Suarez enjoyed her best game of the season with 33 points. The importance of the dynamic duo cannot be understated. Miles added 28 points versus the Cavaliers, and the two scored or assisted on all of TCU’s 79 points.

the next: vs. South Carolina (Monday, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN)

8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Original seed: No. 6 (Fort Worth 1)
results: Def. No. 11 Fairfield 79-60 (first round); Def. No. 3 Ohio State 83-73 (round of 32); Def. No. 2 Vanderbilt 67-64 (Sweet 16)

In 2023 and 2024, Caitlin Clark lifted Iowa State to an appearance in the NCAA Tournament national title game. Last year, Paige Bueckers put UConn on her back in the first three rounds of the Big Dance. The 2026 championship now belongs to Hana Hidalgo. With 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 steals on Friday, Hidalgo posted the second 30-point triple-double in NCAA Tournament history. (Clark was the other, in the Elite Eight against Louisville in 2023.) It was the fifth time this season that Hidalgo had at least 10 steals. But doing it against Akron, Bellarmine or SMU is one thing. Doing so in the regional semifinal against No. 2 seed Vanderbilt is truly historic. Hidalgo now holds the record for the most steals in a single NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame is in the Elite Eight for the first time under Neil Ivey. But UConn represents a different level of challenge. Hidalgo’s history against the Huskies is already good. In her first two games against UConn, the Fighting Irish won both, averaging 31.5 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. A game earlier this season went differently: Notre Dame lost 85-47 on Jan. 19 in Storrs, and Hidalgo scored 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting, with just four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

the next: vs. UConn (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ABC)

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Hannah Hidalgo finished with nearly four doubles in Notre Dame’s win

Hannah Hidalgo did it all with 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and 7 assists in Notre Dame’s win over Vanderbilt.