The NCAA Women’s Final Four is at Tampa’s Amalie Arena in less than three weeks. And the University of South Florida wants to play for a national title in its hometown.
On Sunday, USF learned the first step toward that goal begins Friday in Columbus, Ohio, where the No. 12-seed Bulls will meet the No. 5-seed Tennessee.
Tip-off is 8 p.m., and will air live on ESPN.
BRACKET: See the NCAA women’s bracket
USF (23-10), which earned an automatic bid by winning the American Athletic Conference tournament, reached the NCAAs for the 10th time during Coach Jose Fernandez’s 25 years at the school.
The Bulls won 12 of their last 14 games after a challenging nonconference schedule to start the season.
Tennessee (22-9), led by first-year coach Kim Caldwell, received an at-large bid after losing to state rival Vanderbilt in Southeastern Conference tournament.
The Volunteers are continuing their run of appearing in the NCAAs every year since the tournament began in 1982. That 43 straight years.
The Bulls have won their first-round matchup in five previous appearances and will look to advance to the second weekend for the first time in program history.
Click here to get ticket information for the game at Value City Arena on The Ohio State University’s campus.
The winner moves on to play the victor from Thursday’s game between the host and No. 4-seed Buckeyes and No. 13-seed Montana State.
Ohio State (24-5) lost to UCLA, the NCAA tournament’s overall top seed, in the Big Ten Conference tournament. The Bobcats (30-3) won the Big Sky Conference.
The top 16 seeds in the 68-team field will host first- and second-round games, with the regional rounds being played at two neutral sites for the third straight year. Spokane, Washington, will host half of the Sweet 16 and Birmingham, Alabama, will host the other eight teams.
USF, Tennessee, Ohio State and Montana State are part of the Birmingham 3 bracket.
Joining UCLA as No. 1 seeds are South Carolina, Southern California and Texas.
It's the first time in school history that the Bruins are the top team in the tournament. They had two losses on the season, both of which came to the city-rival Trojans.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley felt her team should get the No. 1 overall seed, but unlike last year when the Gamecocks finished off an undefeated season with a national title, this team has three losses heading into March Madness.
Staley’s team is looking to be the first to repeat as champion since UConn won four straight from 2013 to 2016.
Florida State (23-8) reached the field for the 12th straight year. The sixth-seeded Seminoles will open Saturday against No. 11-seed George Mason (27-5) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as part of the Spokane 1 region.
Florida Gulf Coast University (30-3), winners of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament, earned a No. 14 seed and will head to Norman, Oklahoma, on Saturday to face the host Sooners (25-7), a No. 3 seed.
The path to Tampa won’t be easy for any team: This year there’s more parity in the sport. This NCAA tournament will be only the second in the past 19 years to have no teams entering with zero or one loss. The other time was in 2022.
However, tournament histoy shows there have been 32 No. 1 seeds that have gone on to win the championship, along with seven No. 2 seeds and three No. 3 seeds.
For the first time, there will be a financial incentive for women's teams. They will finally be paid for playing in the NCAA Tournament just like the men have for years.
So-called performance units, which represent revenue, will be given to women’s teams for each win they get. A team that reaches the Final Four could bring its conference roughly $1.26 million over the next three years in financial performance rewards.
This comes a year after the women's championship game that saw South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa do better TV ratings then the men's title game.
The Final Four at Amalie Arena is slated for April 4-6. Click here for information on tickets and the week's activities in Tampa.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
