March Madness USA

The NCAA Women’s Division I Championship is an annual basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women’s Championship was inaugurated in the 1981-82 season. Attendance and interest have grown over the years, especially since 2003, when the final championship game was moved to the Tuesday following the Monday men’s championship game. The women’s championship game is now the final overall game of the college basketball season.

The tournament bracket is made up of champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large bids, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) data.

Unlike the men’s tournament, there are only 33 at-large bids, and no play-in game. The women’s tournament, like the men’s, is staged in a single elimination format, and is part of the media and public frenzy known colloquially as “March Madness”. It is one of the most followed sporting events in the United States.

All 63 games have been broadcast on television since 2003 on ESPN and ESPN2. Similar to men’s tournament coverage on CBS, local teams are shown on each channel when available, with “whip-around” coverage designed to showcase the most competitive contests in the rest of the country.