Conference debates happen every year in college basketball, but at no point are they fiercer than in the weeks leading up to Selection Sunday. And this women’s college basketball season, there is plenty to debate between three conferences: the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the ACC.

While the SEC has two of the top-five teams in the country, South Carolina and LSU, no other program from the conference is represented in the most recent AP Top-25 poll. The Big 12 has three current Top-25 teams (No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 17 Texas and No. 22 Iowa State) and the Big East has two (No. 6 UConn and No. 14 Villanova).

To determine the best conference, Just Women’s Sports used three factors: expert analysis, AP rankings and NET rankings. The NET is a system that takes into account a team’s results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, offensive and defensive efficiency, and quality of wins and losses.

Here are the cases to be made for each of the top three conferences.

Pac-12

Ranked teams: No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Utah, No. 16 UCLA, No. 18 Arizona, No. 21 Colorado, No. 25 USC

Top-25 NET teams: No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 Utah, No. 20 Colorado, No. 21 Oregon

The Pac-12 has looked stronger as the season progresses, with teams like Colorado and USC moving into the rankings and others like Stanford and Utah maintaining their success. In other words, the best teams are staying in top form, and the rest of the conference is catching up.

The Pac-12 also holds the distinction of having two of only four teams in the country, UCLA and Stanford, who have lost to No. 1 South Carolina by fewer than 10 points. The Cardinal took the Gamecocks to the brink on Nov. 20 before losing 76-71 in overtime, giving South Carolina the biggest challenge they’ve faced thus far.

And while Oregon has fallen off mightily since an 11-1 start to the season, the Ducks are still a positive for the Pac-12. They have a high net ranking, and they’ve managed to be competitive against most of their opponents. Those close games include eight-point losses to Utah and Stanford, a six-point loss to UCLA and a five-point loss to USC.

Overall, the Pac-12 is a competitive conference where even the bottom teams (other than 0-12 Arizona State) give their opponents trouble. Take Washington’s 72-67 win over Stanford as an example — despite being 13-11 and 5-9 in conference play, the Huskies were just the second team to top the Cardinal this season.

Big Ten

Ranked teams: No. 2 Indiana, No. 7 Iowa, No. 8 Maryland, No. 12 Michigan, No. 13 Ohio State

Top-25 NET teams: No. 5 Indiana, No. 7 Iowa, No. 14 Michigan, No. 15 Maryland, No. 16 Ohio State

At this point in the season, there are three teams that I think can win the national championship: South Carolina, Stanford and Indiana. The Big Ten’s No. 1 team can compete with the best of the best, and with the way the Hoosiers are playing right now, a Final Four seems plausible and a championship more than possible. That’s a good start for the Big Ten in the top conference debate, but the argument doesn’t end there.

There’s Ohio State, a team that also looked poised for a Final Four when healthy. It’s unclear whether they’ll get Jacy Sheldon and Rebeka Mikulasikova back in time for the postseason, but the Buckeyes’ 18-0 start can’t be discounted.

Having a player like Caitlin Clark in the Big Ten also gives the conference a lift, as the Player of the Year candidate makes Iowa a challenge for any opponent. Then, there’s Maryland, who has impressive non-conference wins over UConn, Notre Dame and Baylor, as well as Michigan, who topped North Carolina.

The conference also has two unranked but competitive teams in Nebraska and Illinois. The Huskers beat Maryland once this season and secured a triple-overtime win over a solid Kansas team, and Illinois defeated Iowa.

The argument for the Big Ten comes from Michigan State, who despite being 5-9 in conference play, is the only team in the country to beat Indiana.

ACC

Ranked teams: No. 9 Duke, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 11 Virginia Tech, No. 19 North Carolina, No. 24 Florida State

Top-25 NET teams: No. 7 Duke, No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 12 Virginia Tech, No. 17 NC State, No. 19 Florida State, No. 23 North Carolina

The ACC has the distinction of being the most chaotic conference in the country. Every week, ACC teams are beating up on each other, and the conference standings reflect that chaos. Duke is first at 12-2, Notre Dame follows at 11-3, Virginia Tech and Louisville are tied at 10-4, and Florida State, North Carolina and Miami are all 9-5. With just over a week left in the regular season, it’s going to be a fight for the top spot until the very end.

Let’s start with Duke, the team most likely to win the ACC. They’re 22-3 with one non-conference loss (78-50 against Connecticut), and their other defeats came against Florida State and North Carolina. Notre Dame, the second-place team, beat UConn in non-conference play and then lost to Duke and NC State in conference play. Louisville is unranked in both the AP Poll and the NET, but they are tied for third in the ACC. Finally, one of those 9-5 teams, Florida State, topped the conference’s first-place team but also lost to Boston College, who is 4-11 in conference play.

See? Pure chaos.

The ACC also has three unranked teams that have spent time in the Top 25, one of which is knocking on the door yet again. After a tough start to the season, Louisville is back to getting the type of results people expected of them, with a big win over UNC on Feb. 5. The other two unranked squads, Miami and NC State, have both spent time in the Top 25 and have wins over top conference opponents. Miami defeated UNC and Virginia Tech on back-to-back nights, while NC State has a win over Notre Dame and a non-conference victory over Iowa.

As this exercise makes clear, all three of these conferences are stacked this season. But I think one is just a bit better than the others based on overall parity. When I turn on an ACC game, I never know what’s going to happen because these squads are so close together.

In 2023, the ACC reigns supreme.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

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.