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.

UC San Diego's Sabrina Ma celebrates the 2025 Big West tournament win that sent her team to their first-ever March Madness.
UC San Diego will make their March Madness debut in Wednesday's First Four round. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)

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."

The Princeton bench celebrates a basket during the 2024 March Madness tournament.
Princeton and Iowa State will tip off March Madness's First Four round on Wednesday. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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.

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's Fliss Henderson and Cecelia Collins box out Vanderbilt's Justine Pissott during their 2024 NCAA Tournament First Four game.
Ivy League top-seed Columbia are hunting their second-ever NCAA tournament appearance.(Ryan Hunt/Getty Images)

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.

Harvard's Harmoni Turner defends Columbia's Fliss Henderson during a 2024 Ivy League tournament semifinal.
Along with Princeton, both Harvard and Columbia could make March Madness. (Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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.