With just 16 teams remaining in this year's March Madness tournament, NCAA programs that have fallen from contention have athletes jumping into the transfer portal, which opened to all college basketball players on Monday.
Multiple players are now seeking to make an offseason move, including this season's Division I leading scorer, Florida State junior guard Ta'Niyah Latson.
After averaging 25.2 points per game throughout her 2024/25 campaign, the National Player of the Year semifinalist jumped into the portal on Thursday, three days after the No. 6-seed Seminoles fell 101-71 to No. 3-seed LSU in Monday's second round.
The All-ACC standout is exploring her transfer options — and the potential NIL windfall a move could bring her — though remaining at Florida State is reportedly still very much on the table.
Another top prospect eyeing an exit is Cotie McMahon, who joined the transfer race on Wednesday following her No. 4-seed Ohio State's 82-67 second-round March Madness loss to No. 5-seed Tennessee.
The 2023 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and two-time All-Big Ten First Team selectee looks to carry her career-best 16.5 points per game average elsewhere for her final year of collegiate eligibility.
More top teams see players take to the transfer portal
Other freshly eliminated programs have also seen portal movement, with players from No. 4-seed Kentucky, No. 7-seed Louisville, and No. 8-seed Georgia Tech all testing the transfer waters.
Notably, the program with the most athletes fleeing is No. 9-seed Indiana, who has seen five of their nine non-graduating players enter the portal in the last three days — including every Hoosier who earned minutes off the bench in the team's two March Madness matchups.
With athletes weighing everything from playing time to NIL paydays to postseason potential, the current NCAA landscape boasts multiple factors motivating decisions to either jump ship or weather the storm.
As the 2025 March Madness tournament rolls on, expect even bigger college basketball names to throw their hats into the transfer ring, as players seek out top programs ahead of the 2025/26 NCAA season.
Viewership stats from March Madness are in, with the first two rounds of the 2024/25 NCAA women’s basketball tournament ranking as ESPN’s second most-watched on record across all platforms.
Trailing only 2024’s Caitlin Clark-fueled historic postseason, 2025’s slate of 32 first-round games averaged a 43% increase over 2023's edition, with ABC enjoying its second-highest first-round viewership ever.
ABC's first-round average of 1 million fans came in part because 1.1 million tuned into No. 2-seed UConn's 103-34 thrashing of No. 15-seed Arkansas State last Saturday, securing the network it's third-highest single-game first-round viewership on record.
In a non-championship round that saw the highest average margin of victory in March Madness history — a differential well over 26 points — last weekend's first round also gave ESPN its second-best viewership stats since 2008.
March Madness second round scores even higher
As the competition's temperature rose in last weekend's second round, so too did viewership, with ESPN's platforms snagging a 60% overall boost over the same round in 2023, earning an average of nearly 1 million viewers across the 16 games.
Yet again, the Huskies led the charge, with UConn's 91-57 blowout win over No. 10-seed South Dakota State drawing an average of 1.7 million fans to ESPN on Monday night — an audience large enough to rank as the fifth most-viewed second-round game in history.
Joining UConn's victory in the NCAA tournament's Top 10 most-watched second-round games are No. 1-seed South Carolina's 64-53 Sunday win over No. 9-seed Indiana and No. 1-seed USC's 96-59 defeat of No. 9-seed Mississippi State on Monday.
The defending national champion Gamecocks' second March Madness matchup jumped into that elite echelon by averaging 1.4 million viewers on ABC, with the Trojans's heartbreaking yet heroic win garnering 1.3 million average fans on ESPN.
All in all, while last year’s historic peaks won’t be easy to replicate, this year’s numbers indicate consistent year-after-year growth across a wider variety of teams — signaling that this season’s strength lies in its breadth of star power, as both superstars and unique storylines compete in every bracket quadrant.
If change has been the driving force behind the 2024/25 women’s college basketball season, the Iowa Hawkeyes never took their foot off the gas pedal.
After four seasons spent watching 2024 graduate Caitlin Clark become one of the most impactful players of all time, Iowa has leaned hard into reinvention this year. It's a plan the No. 6 seed will hope pays off as they continue their NCAA tournament run on Monday after a dominant first-round 92-57 victory over Murray State.
Iowa’s rise to college basketball greatness is known. Clark, a home state hero, decides to build something unique with the Hawkeyes rather than heading to a blue-chip school. She then rewrites the very concept of a successful college career, breaking every scoring record that crosses her path while leading her team to two straight Final Four appearances.
With Clark, the team built a reputation for tough defense, logo threes, raucous crowds, and an elite competitive edge that electrified fans around the country. Clark may have been the headline, but Iowa created the platform.
“I think that for our team in particular, people do fall in love with the personalities of the women, and they want to support them, and they want to get behind them,” recently retired Hawkeyes head coach Lisa Bluder told Just Women’s Sports last month.
According to Bluder, Iowa’s winning roots run deep. Before Clark, the Hawkeyes rallied around another homegrown talent: 2019 National Player of the Year Megan Gustafson.
“We don't have any pro sports, so the Hawks are a big deal here. Our players are treated like professional players.” Bluder attested. “We've had women's basketball in the state for over 100 years. And not everybody can say that.”
Iowa basketball roots run deep
Basketball heritage is woven into Iowa’s culture as it carries through much of the Midwest. But what the Hawkeyes felt entering 2024/25 wasn’t a just tide shift. It was the kind of shakeup that could cause even the most beloved program to buckle under the pressure.
Last summer, Clark transitioned from Iowa superstar to the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. And her teammate Kate Martin surprised the world by deploying her college strengths at the professional level.
And it wasn’t just the players that left — the Hawkeyes also lost their longtime leader.
Bluder now sits on the sidelines, after amassing more Iowa wins than any other head coach in university history. She guided the Hawkeyes to 18 NCAA tournament appearances, only tallying one losing season over her 24 years. Beyond the X’s and O’s, Bluder was known for investing deeply in her players, exemplified by recruiting Clark and guiding her through her transformative college career.
Bluder shifts focus to the sidelines
The legendary coach has taken a step back from the day-to-day elements of women’s basketball, but she remains engaged with the sport. She currently serves as an advocate for technologically informed advances in basketball scouting and performance with companies like GameChanger. And she's always available to speak to reporters and communities alike on the subject of college basketball.
Even with distance, Bluder’s take on this season’s squad are as sharp as they ever were. “This is a team that lost four starters and the world's best players,” she said. “Let's not forget that when we're trying to compare.”
Bouncing back from the loss of a luminary head coach is never easy. And the Hawkeyes subsequently hit some bumps in the road this season, their first under longtime assistant and now head coach Jan Jansen. The reconstructed group began the season 8-0 before a skid that saw them lose seven of their next 11 games. Suddenly, a team not accustomed to losing had to find their patience.
“People can be a little bit unforgiving, and they're naive,” added Bluder. “Because this is a young team.”
Finding their way in the post-Clark era
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Hawkeyes finally finding their spark coincided with a visit from their most celebrated alum. It was early February when Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey, at an event planned around the unranked side’s high-profile matchup with JuJu Watkins and the top-ranked USC Trojans.
Rather than looking like also-rans up against the new wave of basketball wunderkinds, Iowa came to play. The Hawkeyes downed USC 76-69, officially becoming a bracket buster in the making. At once, wading through all that mid-season turmoil began to feel like working towards something, not against it.
“I’m just trying to stay steady,” Jensen said after that February victory. “Obviously a top four win is huge. I’m incredibly proud of them and I intend to build on it.”
Bluder agreed.
“I told her after the game, ‘Jan, this is your first top five win,’” she said, surrounded by fellow spectators like David Letterman and other celebrity fans. They watched from the stands as Iowa chipped away at a new team identity, one centered on transfer senior Lucy Olsen’s explosive shooting and the stabilizing interior presence of former Clark and Martin compatriot Hannah Stuelke.
“It just clicked that game, like, ‘This is what we brought you here to do,’” Olsen told The Athletic late last week, reflecting back on her team’s game-changing win.
Iowa paves a path to March Madness
Going into this weekend’s NCAA tournament, Iowa’s results have been there. They’ve won 10 of their last 13 games, with all three of those losses decided by single-digit margins against ranked opponents. That includes a near-upset of No.1 overall seed UCLA in late February, with Olsen averaging over 21 points since the victory over USC. And while the Hawkeyes’ corner of the bracket might be tough, they’ve managed to make some noise.
And momentum appears to be on Iowa’s side as they gear up for this afternoon’s second-round clash with No. 3 seed Oklahoma. The team recorded a tournament program-record 28 assists against Murray State — no small feat considering the Clark era's free-flowing basketball. All 12 Iowa players to feature last game scored at least two points, with five players registering double-digits.
The Hawkeyes will be eager to keep the good vibes going. But perhaps more importantly, they’re having fun playing the patented style that made so many fans fall in love with Iowa basketball.
"It's fun to score obviously, but being able to make the extra pass... that just shows how special this team is,” said Iowa freshman Taylor Stremlow after Saturday’s win. “How much we love to share the ball, and support each other."
Now aligned, the future is bright for Iowa
Resisting the temptation to let their season tank in favor of a lengthy rebuild, Iowa is achieving something far more difficult and by many degrees more interesting. They’re holding their own in an increasingly difficult Big Ten, leveraging their talent and potentially rewriting their legacy should they make it to the Sweet 16 — or beyond.
Of course, Bluder is keeping her eye on Iowa’s future. She’s already excited about next year’s recruiting class, saying she’s looking forward to five-star prospect Addy Deal joining the team. And the Hawkeyes announced they’ll be holding onto senior floor general Kylie Feuerbach for one more season.
“If recruits feel how great the atmosphere is in Iowa, in Carver [Hawkeye Arena], they're going to want to come back,” Bluder noted. True to her word, fan engagement hasn’t waned in the post-Clark era. The team averaging at-capacity attendance throughout the 2024/25 season.
A Cinderella March Madness run hangs in the balance
Iowa women’s basketball has been nothing short of a dream for a state so deeply entrenched in the sport. But things change, and the Hawkeyes are shifting their focus to a new dream: creating a level of success that extends far beyond a single figure.
Regardless of whether they’re able to extend their Cinderella run or if their March Madness campaign comes to an end this afternoon, Iowa’s 2024/25 season was a hard-fought step in the right direction.
“Everybody asks me if I knew this was going to happen,” Bluder said of the legacy that lives on in this new team. “Of course, I didn't know it was going to happen. I hoped it was going to happen, but you never know for sure. We just had a belief.”
The second round of March Madness will wrap on Monday, after an eight-game slate featuring some of the 2024/25 NCAA tournament’s breakout stars, with title contenders colliding with a few of the weekend’s feel-good storylines.
Hoping to turn an upset into a Cinderella run is the competition's last-standing double-digit seed, No. 10 South Dakota State.
Following their 74-68 defeat of No. 7-seed Oklahoma State in Saturday's first round, the Jackrabbits must contend with UConn's legendary program, facing the surging No. 2-seed Huskies on Monday night.
Also hunting a Cinderella story is tournament’s second-lowest remaining seed, No. 9 Mississippi State. After edging out No. 8 seed Cal on Saturday, the Bulldogs will lean on both defense and their leading scorer, guard Jerkaila Jordan, to push them past sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins' No. 1-seed USC on Monday.
Underdog team stars to push for Sweet Sixteen berths
While all eyes have been on superstars like Watkins and UConn standout Paige Bueckers, Monday’s slate will give fans a chance to check out some of the season’s most exciting surprise performers — possibly for the last time this year.
Hoping for a little Madness magic is No. 6-seed Florida State, who will rely heavily on star junior Ta’Niyah Latson — Division I's leading scorer — to fuel them past the offensive firepower of 2023 NCAA champion No. 3-seed LSU.
Chasing a third straight trip to the Final Four — this time without back-to-back National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark — No. 6-seed Iowa must upend No. 3-seed Oklahoma to advance past the second round.
Both teams are buoyed by star transfers. The Hawkeyes will look to ex-Villanova guard Lucy Olsen to boost them over the line into the Sweet Sixteen, but the Sooners won’t go easy, as former Oregon State standout center Raegan Beers will be eager to lead her new squad on a deep tournament run.
How to watch Monday's March Madness second round
Monday's action will cap the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first two rounds — and invariably put a stamp on some of the season's heartwarming storylines.
No. 7-seed Michigan State and No. 2-seed NC State tipped off Monday's slate at 12 PM ET on ESPN, with the final seven second-round games to air throughout the day across ESPN and ESPN2.