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Women's basketball AP poll, takeaways: NCAA tournament's top 16 in flux after wild final weekend

cassandra negley
Women's basketball reporter
·6-min read

The final day of the 2024-25 regular season delivered. Heck, the whole week provided a taste of what’s in store for March.

The Big Ten and Big 12 conference titles came down to a winner-take-all final game. UCLA, the season-long Big Ten leader, fizzled out again against rival USC. The traditional Big Ten group was playing catch-up to the two Los Angeles teams all season, but at least in a finale between Ohio State and Maryland, they showed they shouldn't be overlooked. It took a running 3-point heave by Sarah Te-Biasu to lead Maryland to a 93-90 win in a back-and-forth overtime.

Baylor, battling for hosting rights in the NCAA tournament, forced TCU to the final buzzer in a thrilling final 90 seconds. They were selected to finish outside of the top two in the Big 12 preseason poll.

The top two Big 12 teams were Kansas State and Iowa State, two teams also playing each other on the season’s final day. Iowa State ran away with it in a dominating third quarter to upset the then-No. 14 Wildcats, 85-63, and secure a signature win to aid their NCAA résumé. The Cyclones were one of the more disappointing teams of the regular season, but showed they could pull off another under-the-radar March performance.

The SEC and ACC titles were shared between the conference’s top teams, while those below them provided a day of upsets. In the SEC, Ole Miss came back from down 15 to upset then-No. 7 LSU (sans Flau’jae Johnson) and lowly Georgia (at 3-12 heading into Sunday) took down Tennessee. Both losses were on home courts. And in the ACC, Duke put an end to Florida State’s good time while North Carolina, without Alyssa Ustby and Reniya Kelly, took an ugly loss to Virginia (8-10 ACC) at home.

March is already coming in like a lion with more in store as conference tournaments get underway this week.

By Thursday night’s end, the Division I women’s basketball committee’s second top-16 reveal was in tatters.

Texas, the Associated Press No. 1 and on the 1-seed line by the committee, survived Mississippi State, but barely. Florida State upset Notre Dame, the fourth and final team on the NCAA tournament’s 1-seed line. The Fighting Irish had lost two in a row. Alabama edged borderline 2-seed LSU. And Duke tore through North Carolina to split the season series.

Days later, USC bested UCLA for the second time this season — both of the Bruins’ losses are to their crosstown rival. The Bruins held the No. 1 overall seed in the first and second reveals. That grasp is now slipping as the Big Ten tournament commences and the committee has a tall task ahead of them in the coming two weeks.

UCLA, USC, South Carolina, Texas, Notre Dame and UConn are all vying for No. 1 seeds and can boost their résumés in conference tournaments. The championship games of the Big Ten (possibly UCLA-USC) and SEC (possibly South Carolina-Texas) could be final deciders for the committee.

The difference between the 4-seed line and 5-seed is more impactful. Upsets on Sunday have forced teams like Tennessee, Ohio State and Kansas State to put on solid conference showings or else hit the road for the rest of the season.

The Texas program circled around a burnt orange SEC logo with “champions” written in blue behind their basket. Rori Harmon and Madison Booker hugged on a ladder, the latter throwing a hook ’em horns in the historic moment.

In Los Angeles, the two hometown teams took the court on Saturday with the Big Ten trophy waiting in the bowels of Pauley Pavilion. USC lifted it in the end, hats on players’ heads for the conference that now stretches coast-to-coast. It’s the program’s first conference title since 1994.

Conference realignment shook up championship races in both the SEC and the Big Ten. Texas, USC and UCLA will be favored as conference leaders again next season.

Oklahoma wasn’t a pushover in its inaugural SEC season, either. The Sooners are the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament, losing the head-to-head tiebreaker to Kentucky after both teams finished 11-5.

South Dakota State completed its third consecutive undefeated Summit League conference season (26-3, 16-0) with an average winning margin of 20.3 points. It’s in line with the in-conference domination of USC (23.5 ppg) and UCLA (21.6 ppg) in the Big Ten; and Texas (25.5 ppg) and South Carolina (23.1) in the SEC.

The Jackrabbits are on a 63-game regular season conference winning streak and became the first to secure back-to-back undefeated seasons last year. They’re 81-1 over the past five seasons, an annual mid-major favorite this time of year as well as a fringe AP Top 25 selection.

Paige Meyer led the majority of that success as one of the program’s greatest point guards, averaging 12 points and 4.2 assists over a four-year career while shooting nearly 50% (43.6% from 3) as a starter. Junior Brooklyn Meyer, the reigning Summit League Player of the Year, paces the offense with 17.8 points per game shooting 64%.

Translating that success to tougher competition is the next step. South Dakota State’s signature win is way back on Nov. 8 at home over Creighton, 76-71. It fell short otherwise in games against Duke (75-71), Georgia Tech (71-57) and Texas (103-57). This year will be their third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance — they reached five straight in the early 2010s — but they’ve never made it past the second round.

1. Texas
2. USC
3. UConn
4. UCLA
5. South Carolina
6. Notre Dame
7. NC State
8. TCU
9. LSU
10. Oklahoma
11. Duke
12. Kentucky
13. Ohio State
14. North Carolina
15. Maryland
16. West Virginia
17. Baylor
18. Tennessee
19. Alabama
20. Kansas State
21. Oklahoma State
22. Florida State
23. Creighton
24. Michigan State
25. South Dakota State

1. Texas
2. USC
3. Notre Dame
4. UConn
5. South Carolina
6. UCLA
7. NC State
8. TCU
9. Baylor
10. Kentucky
11. LSU
12. Ohio State
13. Duke
14. North Carolina
15. West Virginia
16. Oklahoma
17. Tennessee
18. Kansas State
19. Maryland
20. Alabama
21. Oklahoma State
22. Michigan State
23. Creighton
24. Florida State
25. South Dakota State