Just because a team enters the NCAA DI women’s basketball tournament as one of the four No. 1 seeds doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed a spot in the Final Four. In fact, historically, a little more than half make the national semifinals.
The road to the Final Four is never easy. The first DI women’s basketball tournament in 1982 featured 32 teams. The next season, the tournament grew to 36 before reverting back to 32 from 1984-85. That number would continue to rise from 40 to 48 to 64. Starting with the 2022 tournament, 68 teams will earn the chance to play for a national championship. A bigger tournament means more games to win.
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While the number of total teams in the tournament has changed over the years, the number of No. 1 seeds has always stayed the same. With four teams at the top of each region of the bracket, that position typically gives each the best possible chance of making the Final Four.
Across all 39 tournaments, there have been a total of 156 No. 1 seeds. Of those, 87 (55.7%) have made the Final Four.
During that time, there have been four instances of all four No. 1 seeds making it to the Final Four. Since 2012, three of the four all-No. 1 seed national semifinals have occurred, meaning it happened just once between 1982 to 2011: 1989, 2012, 2015 and 2018.
There are a couple of teams that have been the dominating force in the sport across the history of DI women’s basketball: UConn and Tennessee.
The Huskies have made the Final Four as a No. 1 seed 18 times. That means nearly half of all the tournaments (46.1%) have featured a UConn team as a No. 1 seed in the Final Four. Ten of those 18 times have resulted in a national championship for the Huskies.
The Lady Vols have also been impressive, picking up 12 national semifinal appearances as a No. 1 seed. Ten of those years had Tennessee in the national championship game, with seven ending in a national title.
Other than UConn and Tennessee, the team with the third-most Final Four appearances as a No. 1 seed is a tie between Louisiana Tech and Stanford at eight. Notre Dame is close behind with seven. All of Louisiana Tech’s appearances came before 2000. All three of the Cardinal’s national titles (1990, 1992, 2021) have come has a top seed.
Gary Putnik has worked at the FSView & Florida Flambeau and WVFS Tallahassee. His writing has also appeared on MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @garyputnik.
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