The 2024/25 NCAA postseason officially tipped off on Wednesday, with top women's college basketball teams battling in conference tournaments in the lead-up to the Big Dance.

Kicking off this week's deluge of tournaments was No. 18 Tennessee, who avenged their season-ending two loss streak by opening the SEC tournament with a dominant 77-37 win over Texas A&M on Wednesday morning.

Shortly thereafter, UCF tipped off the Big 12 tournament by immediately ousting BYU 81-69, fueled in large part by senior guard Kaitlin Peterson's 35-point performance.

The ACC's debut Wednesday matchup will pit Syracuse against Boston College, while Minnesota and Washington have been tasked with kicking off the race to the Big Ten tournament title.

Most ranked squads like No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 14 North Carolina, and No. 20 Kansas State are waiting in the wings ahead of Thursday’s second-round slate, while AP Poll heavy-hitters No. 1 Texas, No. 2 USC, No. 4 UCLA, and No. 5 South Carolina won’t see their respective conference courts until Friday.

Underdogs aim to upend conference tournaments

While higher seeds have a distinct edge when it comes to conference tournament success, this week also provides underdogs one last shot at impressing the NCAA basketball committee.

Each tournament champion will book their conference's lone automatic ticket to March Madness, while the rest of the field's fate will rest in the selection committee's hands.

Top teams earn byes through to later conference competition rounds, which means lower seeds face significantly longer and more grueling schedules through the single-elimination contests.

Plus, the underdogs have arguably more to lose. Without a standout regular-season record, lower seeds must win their conference title to extend their season into the NCAA tournament, as their at-large selection chances grow dimmer the further they finished down the conference standings.

All in all, though NCAA tournament vets often see Champ Week as just another stepping stone to March Madness, bottom-of-the-table teams have much more at stake, as conference tournaments can upend both seasons and brackets.

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How to watch Wednesday's NCAA conference tournament games

ACC debutant Stanford's 36-season March Madness streak is on brink of collapse, with the unranked Cardinal needing a stellar conference tournament run — or an outright title — to make this year's Big Dance.

No. 11-seed Stanford's first hurdle will be No. 14-seed Clemson, with the pair's Wednesday matchup set for 6:30 PM ET on ACCN.

After two straight Final Four appearances, unranked Iowa will begin their Big Ten tournament campaign against also-unranked Wisconsin in Wednesday's highly anticipated first-round matchup.

The No. 14-seed Badgers and No. 11-seed Hawkeyes will tip off in Indianapolis at 8:30 PM ET, with live coverage streaming on Peacock.

The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) enters its inaugural postseason this weekend, with the Talons and Bandits to battle in the 2025 Championship Series to determine the first-ever title-winner of the new four-team pro league.

The 2025 AUSL Championship Series will run as a best-of-three competition between the top two finishers in the standings, with the Talons entering as favorites behind a league-best 18-6 season record.

Meanwhile, the offense-heavy Bandits finished regular-season play in second place with a 15-9 record, despite leading the AUSL in batting average, runs scored, doubles, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, hits, triples, on-base percentage, and RBIs.

The Bandits' offense — led by 2025 AUSL Hitter of the Year Erin Coffel — will have to contend with the Talons' league-leading defense.

Helmed by this year's Defensive Player of the Year, Talons shortstop Hannah Flippen, the inaugural 10-player AUSL All-Defensive Team included a full five athletes from the league-leading roster.

Pitcher of the Year Georgina Corrick also made the elite defenders list, earning her two honors behind an AUSL-leading 2.04 ERA for the Talons and the league's only perfect record in the circle.

Notably, despite the Talons finishing the 2025 regular season on top, the Bandits have been the toughest task for the league leaders this season: The No. 2 squad handed them four of their six losses, outscoring the Talons 45-31 across their eight matchups.

"They've been a thorn in our side a little bit," acknowledged Talons head coach Howard Dobson.

Even so, this weekend wipes the slate clean.

"It doesn't matter what's happened up to this point," said Bandits head coach Stacey Nuveman-Deniz. "It's literally which team comes at it the sharpest, making the fewest mistakes."

How to watch the 2025 AUSL Championship Series

The Talons and Bandits will take the field for the inaugural AUSL Championship Series at 3 PM ET on Saturday, airing live on ESPN.

Sunday's 2 PM ET clash will also air on ESPN, with ESPN2 claiming Monday's potential 7 PM ET winner-take-all finale.

With one last match remaining, the 2025 UEFA Women's Euro has already become the most-attended edition in tournament history, bursting through the 600,000-fan attendance mark during the first match of this week's semifinal round.

That Tuesday mark officially surpassed the previous tournament record attendance of 574,875 fans, set during the 2022 edition in England.

Exceeding event organizers' predictions, Switzerland's iteration is currently on track to become the first Women's Euro to see average crowds of over 20,000 fans per match — a mark made even more impressive by the fact that half of the eight 2025 venues have capacities well under 17,000 seats.

Along with the competition's record-smashing attendance, global TV viewership of the 2025 Euro has also boomed, with live coverage reaching new highs both in Europe and abroad.

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A peak of 10.2 million UK viewers tuned in to see the defending champion Lionesses defeat Italy in their semifinal on Tuesday, delivering broadcaster ITV their largest audience of 2025 so far.

US broadcaster Fox Sports is also seeing historic numbers from the company's history-making media deal, with US viewership continuing to climb.

With an average of 925,000 US viewers tuning in to see Germany advance past France in last week's quarterfinal, Fox is already gearing up for an even better turnout for Sunday's grand finale.

How to watch the 2025 Euro final

World No. 2 Spain will take on No. 5 England in the 2025 Euro final at 12 PM ET on Sunday, airing live on Fox.

As injured guard Caitlin Clark looked on from the bench, the Indiana Fever refused to quit, silencing Las Vegas 80-70 on Thursday night to overtake the Aces at No. 6 in the WNBA standings.

Indiana guard Kelsey Mitchell led the team with 21 points, helping the Fever secure back-to-back wins over the now-No. 7 Aces for the first time since the franchise landed in Las Vegas in 2018.

"It started out with our defense," Indiana forward Natasha Howard said after the game. "We don't rely on our offense a lot…. When our defense is going, our offense is going."

The rest of Thursday's slate saw standout individual performances give way to blowout victories, with the No. 4 Seattle Storm and No. 10 LA Sparks both earning results.

Sparks guard Kelsey Plum tied LA-turned-Seattle star Nneka Ogwumike for the most 30-point games in franchise history during LA's 101-86 Thursday win over the last-place Connecticut Sun, hitting the milestone in just 24 matchups.

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Elsewhere, 19-year-old Seattle rookie Dominique Malonga also made waves, becoming the youngest-ever WNBA player to record a double-double with her 14-point, 10-rebound showing in the Storm's 95-57 drubbing of the No. 11 Chicago Sky.

All in all, as some teams heat up, others are out in the cold as the race to the 2025 WNBA postseason grows fiercer by the day.

The final WNBA team returning to regular-season action from the 2025 All-Star weekend hits the court on Friday night, when the Golden State Valkyries resume their quest to become the first expansion side to make the playoffs in their debut season.

Entering the WNBA All-Star break on a three-game losing skid, No. 9 Golden State will shoot to regain momentum with games against No. 12 Dallas and No. 13 Connecticut this weekend.

The weekend action features tight clashes across the WNBA standings, with serious positioning implications on the line:

• No. 3 Phoenix Mercury vs. No. 2 New York Liberty, Friday at 7:30 PM ET (ION): Both the Mercury and Liberty are getting healthy, with Phoenix aiming to curb a two-game losing streak during their visit to a surging New York.

• No. 12 Dallas Wings vs. No. 9 Golden State Valkyries, Friday at 10 PM ET (ION): It's a youth-fueled battle as the quick-start Valkyries attempt to re-enter the win column against the young and hungry Wings.

• No. 4 Seattle Storm vs. No. 8 Washington Mystics, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The up-and-down Mystics look to prove they can hang with some of the best as they host perennial playoff contenders Seattle.

• No. 5 Atlanta Dream vs. No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, Sunday at 7 PM ET (NBA TV): Following a turbulent July, Atlanta faces a tough test of their resilience in Sunday's clash with the league-leading Lynx.