WNCAAB

The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship.

The tournament was preceded by the AIAW women's basketball tournament, which was organized by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) from 1972 to 1982. Basketball was one of 12 women's sports added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981–82 school year, as the NCAA engaged in battle with the AIAW for sole governance of women's collegiate sports. The AIAW continued to conduct its established championship program in the same 12 (and other) sports; however, after a year of dual women's championships, the NCAA prevailed, while the AIAW disbanded.

As of 2022, the tournament follows the same format and selection process as its men's counterpart, with 32 automatic bids awarded to the champions of the Division I conferences, and 36 "at-large bids" extended by the NCAA Selection Committee, which are placed into four regional divisions and seeded from 1 to 16. The four lowest-seeded automatic bids, and the four lowest-seeded at-large bids, compete in the First Four games to advance to the 64-team bracket in the first round. The national semi-finals, branded as the Women's Final Four, are traditionally scheduled on the same weekend as the men's Final Four, but in a different host city. Presently, the Women's Final Four uses a Friday/Sunday scheduling, with its games occurring one day prior to the men's Final Four and championship, respectively.

Attendance and interest in the women's championship have grown over the years, especially from 2003 to 2016, when the final championship game was moved to the Tuesday following the Monday men's championship game. The tournament is often overshadowed by the more-prominent men's tournament; after a gender equality review following the 2021 tournament, the NCAA expanded it to the current 68-team format of the men's tournament and extended the "March Madness" branding to the tournament as well. The 2024 women's championship was the first to receive higher viewership than the men's championship the same year. Still, the tournament receives a smaller amount of funding from broadcast rights (which are held by ESPN, and are pooled with those of other NCAA Division I championships besides golf and men's basketball) and sponsorship (which are sold by CBS and Turner Sports) than the men's tournament.

With 11 national titles, the UConn Huskies hold the record for the most NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championships, which included four straight championships from 2013 through 2016. The team had also made the semi-finals for 14 consecutive tournaments.

WNCAAB er en single-elimination-basketballturnering for amerikanske universitetslag for kvinner. Turneringen består av 64 lag, som er delt inn i fire regioner: East, West, Midwest og South. Lagene rangeres etter resultatene sine i løpet av den ordinære sesongen, og de 16 øverste lagene rangeres. Turneringen spilles over en periode på tre uker, og mesterskapskampen spilles på den første søndagen i april.

WNCAAB er en av de mest populære idrettsbegivenhetene i USA. I 2019 fulgte over 100 millioner mennesker turneringen på TV. Turneringen er også en viktig mulighet for kvinnelige basketballspillere til å vise frem talentet sitt og få oppmerksomhet fra WNBA-lag.

Noen av de mest suksessrike lagene i WNCAAB-historien inkluderer Connecticut Huskies, Tennessee Lady Volunteers og Stanford Cardinal. Geno Auriemma har trent UConn til 11 mesterskap, det meste av alle trenere i WNCAAB-historien.

WNCAAB er en spennende og konkurransedyktig basketballturnering. Det er en flott måte å se noen av de beste kvinnelige basketballspillerne i verden konkurrere på sitt beste.