The 2025 edition of women's March Madness will feature significantly more parity than perhaps ever before.
South Carolina is the consensus favorite to win the tournament, showing +275 odds at ESPN BET. UConn, chasing its first title since 2016, is close behind the Gamecocks at +300.
Next comes UCLA and USC tied at +600, followed by Texas (+650), who lengthened from +575 earlier in the day. Notre Dame checks in at +750, marking the first time in at least a decade that six teams will enter the women's tournament with odds shorter than +1000, per ESPN Research.
For years, the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament was defined by chalk: Since 2015, no national championship favorite was longer than +180 going into March Madness, with 2016's UConn the shortest at -900. Six of nine pre-tournament favorites went on to win the title over that span.
"It's surely more wide open than it's ever been. I remember putting up Connecticut against the field before the tournament even started with Connecticut like 1-5 [-500]," DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN. "Some of these teams aren't as strong as they were, or if they are equal to the strength that they've had, others have caught up."
The next tier outside of the top six features TCU at +4000, then Duke, LSU and North Carolina State all at +6000. Given their championship pedigree under head coach Kim Mulkey, the Tigers have attracted significant action at multiple sportsbooks, including at Caesars, where an LSU win would be one of its worst outcomes.
Another serious liability for sportsbooks is UCLA, who outperformed preseason expectations to get the tournament's No. 1 overall seed after entering the campaign at +1200 to win the national championship. The Bruins hold the third-most handle (10%) at DraftKings and are the largest liability at Caesars.
"The women's betting field for the tournament is more balanced overall this year than in years past," said Caesars college hoops trader Patrick Bebert. "You are seeing the ticket count split evenly across [the top six] teams for the most part, with some longshots like LSU and Duke getting a good amount of action as well."
Among the action on the top teams, BetMGM took a $25,000 wager on South Carolina to win it all at +320 odds.