All four No. 1 seeds are back in the Final Four, and women’s March Madness is better for it

HIGH VALUE – The Final Four? We might as well call it the Formidable Four.

Since reaching the 2025 Final Four in Tampa, UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas have maintained an unprecedented hold on the women’s college basketball universe. These four teams started this season in the top four spots in the AP Top 25 poll, held those spots throughout the season and were each named the No. 1 seed in this year’s Big Dance.

Then, when the buzzer sounded in Sacramento on Monday night, marking South Carolina’s victory over TCU, they officially confirmed that this Final Four would be a sequel.

While some might argue that such dominance is boring – a common concern in the world of women’s basketball – I think getting all four teams back to the Final Four is the best thing that could have happened to the sport this year.

Because while Cinderella stories are heartwarming and upheavals exhilarating, nothing beats a true clash of the titans. And they are titans.

“I’m proud to be a part of this group,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said Monday night. “I’m excited about this opportunity. Man, you talk about elite. We’re going to go to Phoenix, and there’s going to be four really elite teams with a really elite group of players and great coaches. I’m really honored to be a part of it.”

What this quartet does is extremely rare. This is only the third time in tournament history (1984, 2013) that all four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the previous year’s Final Four, and only the fifth time in history that all four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four.

Additionally, they are only the second foursome in NCAA Tournament history – men’s or women’s – to make consecutive Final Four appearances, joining the women of Tennessee, UConn, Georgia and Stanford in 1995 and 1996. (For what it’s worth, Tennessee won in 1995 and UConn won in 1996.)

And not only have these four teams been the top four teams by far all season long, but they have each been in great form this tournament. They don’t just beat teams, they rip the soul out of them. This is the first time since 2011 and the second time that all four Final Four teams have won their Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games by more than 30 points combined.

It’s rare in college basketball that one team has sustained excellence, much less that multiple teams find that sustained greatness at the same time and survive a single-elimination tournament known for being long enough to compete on the sport’s biggest stage. As a bonus, all four teams are healthy, have experience at this stadium and, in my opinion, are playing even better than they were at this time last year.

Yes, UConn won it all last year, then lost Paige Bueckers to the draft. But Sarah Strong – still just a sophomore – was the best player in college basketball this season, Azzi Fudd is still there and this team is significantly deeper than last year’s team. Additionally, they remained undefeated this season. (It’s easy to forget, but last year UConn won it all as a No. 2 seed.)

UCLA went undefeated in the Big Ten, collected 19 Quad 1 wins, won the Big Ten Conference Championship Game by a staggering 54 points over Iowa and all five of its starters could be first-round picks in the WNBA draft in the next two weeks, including Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts. Last year, the Bruins were clearly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment in Tampa. That won’t be the case in Phoenix – or at least it shouldn’t be.

UCLA and Lauren Betts return to the Final Four with something to prove

Isabelle Gonzalez

Texas was the first team since 2008 to enter the NCAA Tournament with 14 or more wins against ranked teams. The Longhorns have wins against South Carolina and UCLA this season and, in fact, are one of only two teams since 2020 to defeat South Carolina twice in one season. (The other? The 2024-25 UConn Huskies, who won it all.) Head coach Vic Schaefer called this the best team he’s ever had at Texas and called his players a “team on a mission.” It is Rori Harmon’s Last Rideand she’s not ready for this to end.

South Carolina suffered a few injuries before the season and, like every other team, lost a few pieces to graduation and the portal. But this year, their offense is much more potent, averaging over six points per game more than last year’s group. Taniya Latson is really hitting her stride and her chemistry with Joyce Edwards and Raven Johnson is phenomenal. This is South Carolina’s sixth consecutive Final Four – the second-longest streak in the history of the sport.

In recent years, the boom in women’s basketball has been mainly driven by stars: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins. There are of course stars in this Final Four: Betts, Madison Booker, Sarah Strong, Azzi Fudd, Raven Johnson, the list goes on. But none of them have as much star power or media attention at this point in their career as the aforementioned names.

This year the teams are the stars, and there is no doubt that the top four are the bottom four standing. In a sport that has become so much about the transfer portal and NIL and a time of year famous for its uncertainty and surprises, that’s a gift worth savoring.