March Madness opens its doors on Wednesday night, as the 2024/25 NCAA tournament’s First Four round takes the court with eight teams pursuing the final four tickets to the Big Dance.
Two of the play-in games will pit the last four teams to receive at-large bids against each other, sending Princeton, Iowa State, Washington, and Columbia into battle to snag one of the tournament's final two No. 11 bids.
The other two games are comprised of the lowest ranked conference tournament champions, meaning SWAC champ Southern, Big West winner UC San Diego, CAA victors William & Mary, and Big South title-holders High Point will all compete to enter this weekend's first round as No. 16 seeds.
First Four ups the ante with compelling NCAA storylines
Thanks to growing parity across the NCAA, this year’s First Four brings a new level of heat, with 2024 breakout stars, conference titans, and tournament newcomers raising the stakes right from the jump.
As two of 2025’s six March Madness debutants, both UC San Diego and William & Mary are hoping for a bit of beginner's luck as they take the NCAA tournament court for the very first time.
Meanwhile, the Ivy League will take aim at securing three spots in the 64-team bracket, with both Princeton and Columbia hoping to join conference tournament champion No. 10 seed Harvard in the first round's field.
Standing in Princeton's way is underdog Iowa State, who nearly scored what would have been one of the 2024 tournament's biggest upsets.
Fueled by now-sophomore sharpshooter Audi Crooks — who currently ranks 12th in the nation in field goal percentage — the Cyclones pushed then-No. 2 seed Stanford to the brink, forcing overtime before the Cardinal claimed the 87-81 second-round victory.
"It’s definitely possible," Crooks said this week, commenting on the likelihood of replicating Iowa State's 2024 run. "I think for me it just amplified me personally, and also us as a team. Any success that I have is the team’s success, not necessarily about individual things."
How to watch Women's March Madness First Four games
Stepping into Wednesday's spotlight are Princeton and Iowa State, who will take the court at 7 PM ET before UC San Diego takes on Southern at 9 PM ET.
Then on Thursday, Washington will face Columbia at 7 PM ET, with William & Mary's match against High Point wrapping up the First Four round at 9 PM ET.
Both Wednesday matchups will air on ESPNU, with ESPN2 carrying live coverage of the Thursday clashes.
The 2024/25 NCAA basketball tournament bracket is officially locked in, as Selection Sunday saw March Madness favorites, underdogs, and a few surprises claim their tickets to the Big Dance.
After winning the Big Ten tournament one week prior, UCLA not only earned the NCAA competition's overall top spot, but the Bruins claimed their first-ever No. 1 seed in program history.
Sitting atop the three other quadrants are SEC tournament title-winners and NCAA defending champions South Carolina as well as conference runners-up Texas and USC, giving both the SEC and Big Ten two of the tournament's top contenders.
Chasing the four top teams as No. 2 seeds are Big 12 tournament champs TCU, ACC tournament winners Duke, ACC runners-up NC State, and Big East champions UConn, whose late-season momentum wasn't quite enough to life the Huskies above a second-spot bid.
In a season that saw a record-tying four teams reach No. 1 in the AP Poll, three (UCLA, South Carolina, and Texas) claimed NCAA No. 1 seeds, with once-No. 1 ranked Notre Dame falling out of top-seed contention after losing three of their last five games.
The Irish will now tip off their March Madness campaign as a No. 3 seed alongside 2022/23 NCAA champs LSU, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
Snagging the tournament's last hosting spots are the No. 4 seeds, meaning Ohio State, Kentucky, Baylor, and Maryland will all have home-court advantage through the competition’s first two rounds.
Coaches question NCAA committee's seeding decisions
While some teams were thrilled with their placements, a tinge of disappointment overshadowed other top contenders’ watch parties.
"I never thought I'd be a No. 1 seed and feel disrespected," said USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb after learning the NCAA committee awarded the Trojans the last top seed, ranking them fourth overall.
"It's not an arrogance of any kind, I think that there's a lot of really good teams...but I would love to ask [this committee] some questions."
Head coach Dawn Staley had a similar reaction to South Carolina's positioning, saying "I'm a little bit surprised."
"I'd like to get some feedback on how they came to that conclusion," said Staley. "We put together, manufactured, a schedule that — if done right — should produce the overall No. 1 seed."
The NCAA committee broke down their determination of the Gamecocks on ESPN, explaining that South Carolina’s head-to-head November loss to UCLA plus last month's 29-point nonconference defeat at the hands of UConn played major roles in the decision.
Despite the disappointment, Gottlieb says her team is ready to take care of business.
"You've gotta play the first game in front of you and earn your way from there, and that's what we'll do."
Big Ten makes NCAA March Madness bracket history
With 12 teams booking spots in the Big Dance, the Big Ten not only earned the season’s most NCAA tournament bids, it also smashed the Division I record for the most programs in a single conference to make a March Madness bracket.
With a conference-record 10 teams, the SEC closely followed the Big Ten, while eight ACC squads and seven Big 12 programs round out the Power Four's 37 total berths.
Also experiencing a record-setting Selection Sunday was the Ivy League, which saw three teams sneak into the competition for the first time in the eight-program conference's history.
After upsetting their way through last weekend's conference competition, Ivy League tournament champions Harvard secured a No. 10 seed on Sunday, while both Columbia and Princeton have a shot at snagging a No. 11 seed as contenders in the NCAA's First Four games.
Dancing for the first time are six teams, with Arkansas State, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Mason, Grand Canyon, UC San Diego, and William & Mary all set to make their NCAA tournament debuts later this week.
To be the best, teams must beat the best, and the talent concentrated at the top of the NCAA bracket — regardless of seeding — is guaranteed to make for some tough competition.
How to watch the First Four March Madness games
While the the official first round of the 2024/25 NCAA basketball tournament doesn't begin until Friday, the March Madness action will tip off with the First Four round on Wednesday, when eight teams will battle for the final four spots in the 64-team bracket.
Stepping into Wednesday's spotlight are Princeton and Iowa State, who will take the court at 7 PM ET before UC San Diego takes on Southern at 9 PM ET.
Then on Thursday, Washington will face Columbia at 7 PM ET, with William & Mary's match against High Point wrapping up the First Four round at 9 PM ET.
The Huskies' Thursday clash with the Lions will air live on ESPN2, with the other three First Four games earning live coverage on ESPNU.
Print complete NCAA Women's March Madness bracket
As the 2024/25 NCAA basketball Selection Sunday looms, the Ivy League is tipping off its two-day conference tournament on Friday, with an automatic ticket to March Madness on the line in Saturday's championship game.
Compared to behemoths like the 18-team ACC and Big Ten, the small eight-school conference sent two squads to 2024 NCAA tournament, where Columbia fell in the First Four before West Virginia defeated Princeton in the first round.
This year, Ivy League No. 1-seed Columbia took the conference's outright regular-season title with a 13-1 league record, while the No. 2-seed Princeton Tigers and No. 3-seed Harvard Crimson also posted winning runs, following the Lions with respective 12-2 and 11-3 Ivy resumes.
Only half of the league's eight teams make the conference showdown, and the Penn Quakers eked out the No. 4-seed spot on a tiebreaker, clinching their sixth Ivy League tournament berth after finishing the season locked up with the Brown Bears.
Columbia looks to stay atop Ivy League entering March Madness
Princeton has dominated the Ivy in recent years, earning 11 March Madness trips in the NCAA tournament's last 14 iterations and making two national second-round appearances behind now-UConn starter Kaitlyn Chen.
However, Columbia is the conference favorite this year, with the Lions taking aim at their second-ever NCAA tournament appearance.
Columbia's first March Madness trip came just last year, buoyed by the team's all-time leading scorer and the program's first-ever WNBA draftee, Connecticut Sun guard Abbey Hsu.
While the Lions are expected to take this weekend's title, booking a likely NCAA tournament No. 11 seed alongside the Ivy League's automatic bid, ESPN’s Bracketology currently has the conference fielding three teams in the national bracket — both Princeton and Harvard are predicted to snag one of the final four at-large spots on Sunday.
All in all, breaking into the outer margins of the NCAA tournament bracket is no small feat, but March Madness rests on the premise that even the smallest conferences can change the game with a single upset.
How to watch the 2025 Ivy League conference tournament
No. 1-seed Columbia will tips off Friday's semifinals against No. 4 Penn at 4:30 PM ET, before No. 2 Princeton and No. 3 Harvard battle at 7:30 PM ET.
The winners will face-off for the conference title and the Ivy League's automatic March Madness bid on Saturday at 5:30 PM ET.
Both Friday semifinals will air live on ESPN+, with ESPNU broadcasting Saturday's championship game.