Selection Sunday has come and gone, and now we officially know the field of 68 competing in the 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament. South Carolina has been the most dominant program all season and was an easy pick for the No. 1 team in the rankings.
The Gamecocks are entering the tournament undefeated for the second consecutive year, and while last year they fell to Iowa in the Final Four, Dawn Staley’s group looks more than capable of winning its second title in the last three years. Only nine teams have ever finished as undefeated champions.
The Pac-12 as we know it is gone after this season, but the conference’s classic teams are ready to represent one more time in the Big Dance. USC beat Stanford to win the Pac-12 Tournament, earning the Trojans the No. 2 spot in our rankings. Freshman star JuJu Watkins has had some incredible performances for USC this season, but the team is stronger than just her. McKenzie Forbes reminded everyone of that when she scored 26 points in the Pac-12 title game en route to winning the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honors.
Our No. 3, Iowa, avoided an upset loss against Nebraska in the Big Ten title game. The Hawkeyes lifted their third consecutive conference tournament trophy, and their last before Caitlin Clark — NCAA Division I basketball’s all-time leading scorer — leaves to the WNBA. The Hawkeyes made it to last year’s national championship game, but LSU overpowered them for the title. Clark will try to finish the job this time around.
As for LSU, the reigning national champion, the Tigers have had a few slip ups this season, but Kim Mulkey’s squad is still tough to beat and will be hungry to prove itself once again. Although they failed to win the SEC Tournament, the Tigers kept it competitive against South Carolina in the SEC title game and are therefore ranked No. 8.
UConn has 11 national titles, the most in women’s college basketball. The Huskies also have star guard Paige Bueckers back this year after she sat out all of last season due to a torn ACL. Bueckers is still a strong offensive player and has made a jump defensively, but while she’s been healthy in 2023-24, the injury bug has affected the Huskies elsewhere. Multiple injuries and several inexperienced players on the roster forced UConn to use a rotation of mostly seven players. Depth matters during March Madness, but the Huskies can’t be overlooked because they have still managed to have the second-best scoring margin in the nation, just behind South Carolina.
Here are CBS Sports’ rankings for all 68 teams in the 2024 NCAA Women’s Tournament.
Ranking Women’s NCAA Tournament teams 1-68
