Conference realignment changed the landscape of college basketball in 2024-25, and while the affiliations have changed, the expectations and traditional powers stayed the same.
Despite a pair of recent stumbles, defending champion South Carolina is still exceptional and a favorite once again. JuJu Watkins is a star and has USC reaching heights the program hasn't been in more than 40 years. The Trojans, along with UCLA, are just doing it in the Big Ten now.
Texas and Oklahoma have made the SEC better. Notre Dame is pacing the ACC as expected, and Hannah Hidalgo remains a star and threat to opponents on both ends of the floor.
With Selection Sunday less than a month away, NCAA tournament bids will be overwhelmingly gobbled up by what are now the Power 4 conferences. But to what extent? Which of the four leagues has been the best in 2024-25, and which offers the most postseason upside? We rank the four best conferences in women's college basketball.
Temira Poindexter climbs the ladder for an epic Wildcats block.
4. Big 12
Projected bids: 7
Average seed: 6.0
Nonconference winning percentage: .775
Conference NET ranking: 4
Thanks to the emergence of TCU, the continued consistency of Kansas State and a surprising season from Oklahoma State, the losses of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC have been managed. That isn't to say the two aren't missed -- this ranking would have a chance to be higher with them -- but it's not doom and gloom in the Big 12.
Give Iowa State credit for scheduling the best programs in the country. Unfortunately, the Cyclones lost every important nonconference games, including nationally televised blowouts to UConn and South Carolina. A preseason Big 12 favorite, they are now hanging on to an NCAA tournament berth.
Utah first had to adjust to a new conference and then lost its coach two weeks into the season when Lynne Roberts accepted the Los Angeles Sparks job. Associate head coach Gavin Petersen moved up one seat on the bench and the Utes haven't missed a beat, still in the running to win the regular-season title. A fourth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance is assured.
However, Utah is the only program in this most recent expansion of expatriated Pac-12 schools, or the previous additions of BYU and former AAC teams, that has helped the Big 12. The conference is now deep in numbers only. Colorado and Arizona are fringe bubble teams this season. The rest have mostly been blowout fodder for the top seven teams and will struggle to reach any postseason tournament.
North Carolina and NC State go back-and-forth in the final minutes as the Tar Heels are able to pull out the win after a couple of free throws.
3. ACC
Projected bids: 9
Average seed: 5.6
Nonconference winning percentage: .754
Conference NET ranking: 3
The variety at the top has helped the ACC over the past few seasons. Notre Dame made Final Fours, suffered a couple of lean years and is now back among the national title contenders. Louisville was the standard bearer at the end of the last decade and into the beginning of this one. Virginia Tech was elite in the Liz Kitley-Georgia Amoore era. NC State took the conference torch to the Final Four last season. Kara Lawson has Duke back in contention for the league crown this year after a steady rebuild. And even as one program has given way to the next at the top, those programs have remained viable NCAA tournament and Sweet 16 threats.
Much like the Big 12, the new additions have added little to the ACC. Stanford arrived at the absolute worst time for the program and is on pace to have its worst season since the now retired legendary Tara VanDerveer's first on the sidelines in 1985-86. SMU wasn't even a contender in the AAC before joining the ACC. Cal has been a pleasant surprise and Charmin Smith should be on coach of the year lists, both in the conference and nationally, but the Bears are likely to finish seventh or eighth in the league with a similar NCAA tournament seed.
The Irish, Wolfpack and Blue Devils, along with North Carolina will all be favorites to reach the second weekend of this year's NCAA tournament. Notre Dame, Duke and NC State still represent Final Four potential. The issue is that after the ACC's projected nine NCAA tournament bids, a precipice exists. All the remaining nine teams might finish with below .500 overall records. There are too many nights off in the ACC.
Georgia Tech, Louisville and Florida State give the ACC the NCAA tournament berth depth it needs, and Notre Dame provides national championship potential for the league to land at No. 3. But there is too much boom or bust for the conference to get higher.
Rebecca Lobo breaks down JuJu Watkins' stellar play for USC in Trojans' win vs. UCLA on Thursday night.
2. Big Ten
Projected bids: 13
Average seed: 7.1
Nonconference winning percentage: .840
Conference NET ranking: 2
Postseason success has eluded the Big Ten for some time. The league hasn't had a national champion since Purdue in 1999. Until Iowa's consecutive appearances in 2023 and 2024, the Big Ten hadn't been represented in the Final Four since Maryland Terrapins in 2015, the Terps' first year in the conference. The addition of UCLA and USC might have come at exactly the right time. Apart from the last two years and the Caitlin Clark-elevated Hawkeyes, the Big Ten hasn't had a serious championship contender in years. Now it has two.
With the conference ballooning to 18 teams, more NCAA tournament bids were anticipated -- but the Big Ten is about to shatter its previous record of seven. While Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington have all hovered near or on the bubble for weeks, expect most of them to make the field. The Big Ten will have at least 11 (and probably 12) teams in the field. A 13th is even possible.
Michigan and Michigan State have been surprises this year. Kim Barnes-Arico remade her Wolverines with youth, an unusual accomplishment in today's transfer portal world, and will reach her seventh straight NCAA tournament. Robyn Fralick used the portal to supplement an already veteran team, and the Spartans have a chance for their best season in nearly a decade. Breaking through into the Sweet 16 will be the goal, but it's something the two programs have combined to do just three times since 2006.
Maryland and Ohio State have maintained their spots among the top-20 programs in the country, but also won't be picked by many to reach the Final Four. Indiana and Iowa have taken steps back from being consistent threats to reach the second and third weekends to bubble teams. Illinois has admirably navigated injuries to some key players but isn't likely deep enough to get to the regionals. Nebraska, too, suffered a huge loss when last year's Big Ten freshman of the year, Natalie Potts, tore her ACL five games into this season.
The Big Ten will have the most bids, but a sketchy postseason history and a lot of uncertainty around anyone making the Sweet 16 beyond UCLA and USC keep the conference at No. 2.
Freshman Joyce Edwards scores a career-high 28 points as No. 4 South Carolina bounces back from its recent loss at Texas with a 101-63 blowout of the Gators.
1. SEC
Projected bids: 10
Average seed: 4.1
Nonconference winning percentage: .807
Conference NET ranking: 1
The Big Ten has more NCAA tournament bids, but no league will have more quality seeds than the SEC. And no league has three legitimate national title contenders -- LSU, South Carolina Gamecocks and Texas Longhorns -- like the SEC. Quality outpaces quantity.
Six SEC teams were placed in the NCAA tournament selection committee's initial top-16 reveal on Sunday, and two more were mentioned as being considered. That's eight SEC teams in the top 18 to 20 in the country.
The metrics back that up. Those eight SEC teams are in the top 20 of the NET. Six are part of the BPI's top 20. Six of the top eight teams in the NET strength of schedule are from the SEC.
The addition of Texas and Oklahoma have undoubtedly taken the competition in the SEC to another level, but there's more to it. Programs throughout the league have elevated this season or in the last couple of years.
Alabama is in position for its best NCAA tournament seed this century. Ole Miss has sustained its improvement under coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, a rebuild that began to bear fruit three seasons ago. Kenny Brooks quickly injected life into a Kentucky program that was coming off consecutive losing seasons. Vanderbilt is about to make its second NCAA tournament in a row after missing eight straight -- and has one of the most electrifying scorers in freshman Mikayla Blakes, who has scored over 50 points twice this season.
Those are all potential Sweet 16 teams, along with Oklahoma and Tennessee, two teams that don't play in the traditional SEC style but have combined to go 16-6 in Quad 1 and 2 games.
It wouldn't be a surprise if the SEC advanced five or six teams to the Sweet 16, two in the Final Four and produced the national champion for the fourth straight year.