After No. 20 Kansas fell to unranked Nebraska last week, just six teams remain unbeaten in NCAA Division I women’s college basketball this season.

No. 1 South Carolina, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Indiana, No. 10 LSU, No. 12 Utah and No. 25 St. John’s are all perfect thus far — but as conference play heats up, those perfect records will become harder to maintain.

Which undefeated team will be the last one standing?

No. 1 South Carolina (12-0)

In 2021-22, the Gamecocks seemed to have a high probability of making it through the regular season without a loss after they topped No. 2 Stanford on Dec. 21. But they were upset just one game later, in a surprising 70-69 loss to Missouri.

South Carolina ended up losing one more game, to Kentucky in the SEC tournament, before going on to win the NCAA title.

Last season’s loss to Missouri was shocking because of the opponent, but also because South Carolina looked essentially unbeatable up to that point. This season is different. I don’t expect the Gamecocks to make it to the tournament with a perfect record because we already have seen the formula to beat them.

While South Carolina scored a 73-64 win against UCLA on Nov. 29, the Bruins’ game plan was nearly perfect. They opted to put a defender on Aliyah Boston in the paint while running a four-man zone around her. While Boston still recorded 18 points, packing the paint disrupted South Carolina’s flow. The Gamecocks weren’t able to play inside out, and they went 1-of-14 from the 3-point line.

A fourth-quarter collapse kept UCLA from an upset win, but another team could put the same plan into practice for a chance to topple South Carolina. Of course, even if the plan is executed well, South Carolina still has enough talent to pull out a win – they have perhaps the deepest team in the country. But UCLA proved it is possible to upset the Gamecocks.

Still, of all the teams on this list, the Gamecocks have the best shot at a perfect record.

No. 3 Ohio State (13-0)

The Buckeyes had a scare against USF, as they trailed by as many as 18 in Tuesday’s contest. Even after making a comeback and forcing overtime, they trailed by 6 with 1:10 remaining.

But Ohio State scored eight straight to grab an improbable victory. Then the team followed that up with a convincing 84-67 win over No. 16 Oregon to preserve its unbeaten record.

No. 3 Ohio State rallied late and escaped an upset in OT last night ‼️ pic.twitter.com/YnSSEoTJrq

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) December 21, 2022

The win over Oregon also stands out as impressive, as the Buckeyes did it with a depleted squad.

Point guard Jacy Sheldon has been out with a leg injury since Nov. 30 and remains week-to-week. Sheldon is not just the team’s second-leading scorer but also its best defender, with six steals per game. Without Sheldon, the point guard duties fell to Madison Greene, but she was hurt in the win over USF. So the Buckeyes head into Big Ten play without two of their key players.

The Big Ten is full of talented opponents, and getting through it without a loss would be a tall order. The challenges start on Dec. 31 with No. 19 Michigan. Then, two weeks later Ohio State plays a Nebraska team that just topped previously undefeated Kansas.

The non-conference portion of the season closed on Wednesday with our 12th win! pic.twitter.com/BEXUqWBcwK

— Indiana Women’s Basketball (@IndianaWBB) December 22, 2022

No. 4 Indiana (12-0)

The Hoosiers started the season with a win over Tennessee. Then they topped No. 6 North Carolina in dominant fashion, and they did so without injured star Grace Berger.

But Big Ten play will make their perfect record hard to keep. The Hoosiers have to play Michigan, Maryland, Ohio State and Iowa twice each. There’s pretty much no way they make it through the conference slate without a loss.

That being said, Indiana has been able to maintain its perfect record thus far because of a balanced attack and a plethora of talent. Since Berger’s injury, everyone else has stepped up. Mackenzie Holmes leads the way with 19.8 points per game, followed by Sydney Parrish with 12.5, Sara Scalia and Yarden Garzon with 11.9 each. Chloe Moore-McNeil has slid nicely into the point guard spot, averaging 9.9 points and 5.2 assists per game.

No. 10 LSU (12-0)

Angel Reese is crazy talented, and LSU scores a lot of points. But the Tigers’ perfect record is largely because of the their opponents.

So far, the best team LSU has played is a 7-4 Oregon State squad. Other than the Beavers, their opponents have included: Bellarmine, Mississippi Valley State, Western Carolina, Houston Christian, Northwestern State, George Mason, UAB, Southeastern Louisiana, Tulane, Lamar and Montana State.

Because of that weak schedule, it’s hard to gauge just how good LSU is, and even harder to predict how long the Tigers can stay undefeated.

The Tigers could lose as soon as Dec. 29, when they take on a ranked team in No. 17 Arkansas — or, they could prove their doubters wrong and pass their first true test of the season. From there, the SEC will certainly provide better competition, including fellow undefeated team No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 12.

Angel Reese's non-conference numbers are crazy 🔥

6th in PPG (24.6)
1st in RPG (14.7)
1st in double-doubles (12 in 12 games)
11th in FG% (63.5)

📷: @LSUwbkb pic.twitter.com/6l6qxGYi68

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) December 20, 2022

No. 12 Utah (12-0)

The Utes have played just one ranked opponent up to this point, but they made the most of it, topping Oklahoma 124-78.

The going will get tougher for Utah in Pac-12 play, especially in back-to-back games in January against No. 18 Arizona and No. 2 Stanford. Followed by No. 11 UCLA and No. 16 Oregon.

The Utes likely will not get through that gauntlet without a loss, but they have a chance to stay unbeaten until then. Before then, they face Southern Utah, Washington State, Washington, Colorado and Arizona State, and if one of those teams knocks them off, it certainly would be considered an upset.

The Utes have stayed unbeaten so far because of their high-powered offense. They average 93 points per game, with five-double digit scorers. Alissa Pili leads with 20.7 points per contest.

No. 25 St. John’s (12-0)

After playing a relatively light schedule, St. John’s worked its way into the AP Top 25 with a win over No. 21 Creighton on Dec. 4.

The Red Storm went up 9 points at the end of the first quarter and weathered runs from Creighton to secure a narrow 66-62 victory. The game was an impressive showing of maturity from an experienced St. John’s team. All five starters are fifth-year seniors or graduate students, and so are the first two players off the bench.

Because of this, I don’t expect St. John’s to drop a game to a team they should beat. Discipline is important in an undefeated season, and the Red Storm certainly have that. Their toughest test is yet to come, though, when they take on UConn on Jan. 11. There is a chance that Azzi Fudd is back for that game, so a loss is likely.

If St. John’s manages to get through the Huskies unscathed, they have to play Villanova, Marquette and DePaul twice, then they have rematches against Creighton and UConn. I imagine the Red Storm will have at least one loss on their record by the middle of January.

History made ✅ pic.twitter.com/gb2N8doqTx

— St. John's WBB (@StJohnsWBB) December 21, 2022

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.