Joe (Women's) Bracketology, 2024

Women's college basketball has never been hotter!  I'm not saying that just because Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are the two biggest stars in the sport right now (men or women).  They're certainly a big part of it, and the show they put on in last season's National Championship Game was something else!  The women took that well-deserved Sunday afternoon on ABC showcase and ran with it, and this season has been an exceptional display.

Clark and Reese continued to be the story in 2023-24, but so did South Carolina.  Dawn Staley's team was undefeated heading into the NCAA Tournament last season, when they lost to Clark & Iowa in an outstanding Final Four game!  South Carolina enters the NCAA Tournament again (although, not without some controversy) and will be the clear No. 1 overall seed for the second straight year. 

Iowa's a clear No. 2 overall.  Although, because they're sticking with that ridiculous two Regional format, they and South Carolina will both play the second weekend in Albany.  The other Regional site is in Portland, where two Pac-12 teams will be the No. 1 seeds.  Whether it's USC 3/Stanford 4 or the other way around doesn't really make much of a difference.  They're likely both 1-seeds and they're both going to the Western regional site.  The only difference is one will get South Carolina in the Final Four and the other will get Iowa.  

It's actually been a bit of a banner year for the Pac-12 in its swan song.  UCLA's also a Top 10 team, and it's looking like they'll have five teams hosting in the first weekend, with Oregon State and Colorado likely joining those three.  For comparison's sake, the Big Ten should have three first/second round hosts, but no other conference will have more than two.

The major conferences have all had solid years.  As a result, the tournament field should be very top-heavy with major-conference teams.  Gonzaga (which might host the opening weekend) could be the only mid-major team that gets an at-large bid...and that's only because they lost to Portland in the WCC Championship Game!  If not for that Gonzaga loss, it's very possible that all 36 at-large bids would've gone to just six conferences.  (It'll be interesting to see how next season's conference realignment affects that.)

With all that in mind, making a mock women's bracket is much easier than making a mock men's bracket.  That's always the case, especially now that all of the conference tournaments in the major conferences are over before the men's tournaments start.  They don't have the chaos that happened on Saturday on the men's side.  There are no teams playing themselves in or knocking somebody out in the final days before Selection Sunday...although I'm sure that doesn't make the wait feel any shorter for the bubble teams.

They also get significantly more time on Sunday to finalize the bracket.  The men's games don't end until less than an hour before the Selection Show.  Meanwhile, there are only a handful of women's games, all in one-bid leagues, and they're all done by mid-afternoon, well before the Selection Show, which is after the men's.  That would be great for building the suspense if there was any, but, like the men, the top teams in the women's bracket seem pretty set.

Also, I'm sorry, but the two Regional site thing is beyond stupid!  There are four Regionals, but only two sites?  Why?  It must be cheaper, which is the only conceivable reason I can think of why they do it.  Because it certainly doesn't do anything to grow the game.  You would think they'd want to spread it around and go to more places, especially since the first weekend is played on campus.  They've already announced the sites for 2025 and 2026.  I sure hope this two-Regional experiment, which is in its second season, is done after that.

My other big gripe with the two Regional format is that it's beyond confusing!  Even when they went from naming them by region to naming them by site, there were still four distinct Regionals!  Heck, they even gave the Regionals different names when the entire tournament was in San Antonio in 2021!  Now, we get "Albany 1" and "Albany 2," as if that clarifies anything!

So, in my bracket, we're rectifying that problem.  Only one Regional will be named after the site.  The other in that location will get the "East" or "West" distinction.  Which means South Carolina gets "East," Iowa gets "Albany," USC gets "West" and Stanford gets "Portland."  As for the whole bracket, here it is...

EAST
Columbia: 16-UT Martin/Presbyterian at 1-South Carolina (1), 8-North Carolina vs. 9-Princeton
Bloomington: 13-Cal Baptist at 4-Indiana, 5-Kansas State vs. 12-Missouri State
Corvallis: 14-Portland at 3-Oregon State, 6-West Virginia vs. 11-Mid Tennessee
South Bend: 15-Norfolk State at 2-Notre Dame, 7-Mississippi vs. 10-Maryland

PORTLAND
Stanford: 16-Jackson State at 1-Stanford (4), 8-Iowa State vs. 9-Michigan State
Spokane: 13-Eastern Washington at 4-Gonzaga, 5-Syracuse vs. 12-Chattanooga
Raleigh: 14-Rice at 3-NC State, 6-Utah vs. 11-Marquette/Texas A&M
Austin: 15-UC Irvine at 2-Texas, 7-UNLV vs. 10-Auburn

ALBANY
Iowa City: 16-Sacred Heart/Holy Cross at 1-Iowa (2), 8-Florida State vs. 9-Alabama
Boulder: 13-South Dakota State at 4-Colorado, 5-Oklahoma vs. 12-Fairfield
Los Angeles (UCLA): 14-Kent State at 3-UCLA, 6-Duke vs. 11-Green Bay
Baton Rouge: 15-Maine at 2-LSU, 7-Creighton vs. 10-Miami

WEST
Los Angeles (USC): 16-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1-USC (3), 8-Nebraska vs. 9-Mississippi State
Blacksburg: 13-Florida Gulf Coast at 4-Virginia Tech, 5-Baylor vs. 12-Richmond
Storrs: 14-Drexel at 3-Connecticut, 6-Louisville vs. 11-Vanderbilt/Michigan
Columbus: 15-Marshall at 2-Ohio State, 7-Tennessee vs. 10-Kansas 

As I noted earlier, the only real difference between the No. 3 and No. 4 overall seeds for the two Pac-12 teams is which one gets South Carolina and which gets Iowa.  Since I gave USC the higher seed, it's the Trojans against their future conference rivals in the Final Four, while the other matchup pits South Carolina against Stanford.  That's assuming, of course, all four 1-seeds get to Cleveland, which is far from a certainty.  Not with how strong the women's game has been this season!

Would people love to see the clear top two teams--South Carolina and Iowa--meet for the National Championship?  Of course!  And there's certainly a very strong possibility that will happen.  It wouldn't be shocking if it didn't, though.