• All 67 games of the tournament available across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS, March 19 – April 6
• 1 Seeds: UCLA, South Carolina, Texas, USC
• Game On: Journey to the NCAA Championship, the one-hour women’s basketball special, set to air Thursday, March 20 at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN

For a landmark 30th straight year, ESPN returns as the exclusive home of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament. ESPN platforms have every angle of all 67 games covered, beginning Wednesday, March 19 with the First Four at 7 p.m. March Madness women’s basketball on ESPN platforms is presented by Capital One with matchups available across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS. Select matchups throughout the tournament will also be available on ESPN+ and Disney+.

The tournament culminates with the NCAA Women’s Final Four (April 4 & 6) live from Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. For the third straight year, coverage of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship game is slated for ABC, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 6 with a special one-hour pregame show. Last season, the 2024 national championship game delivered a record-setting 18.9 million viewers, to cap off a historic tournament.

The opening weekend will feature numerous top matchups, including the overall No. 1 seed UCLA Bruins against the winner of UC San Diego/Southern (Fri., 10 p.m. ET, ESPN). Other games with top seeds include: No. 1 South Carolina takes on Tennessee Tech (Fri., 4 p.m., ESPN); No. 1 Texas hosts the winner of High Point/William & Mary (Sat., 9:45 p.m., ESPN2); and No. 1 USC faces UNC Greensboro (Sat., 3 p.m., ABC).

Los Angeles (UCLA), Austin (Texas), Chapel Hill (UNC) and South Bend (Notre Dame) will serve as the First Four host sites, with games beginning Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Championship Caliber Studio Teams Ready for Action
ESPN will deploy two top-tier studio teams for NCAA Championship in The Studio Presented by AT&T from the First Four through the Elite Eight.

The first team is led by the host of SportsCenter and the women’s edition of College GameDay Covered by State Farm, Elle Duncan, along with her fellow GameDay analysts, Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike.

The additional studio team will be spearheaded by SportsCenter anchor Kelsey Riggs Cuff, joined by analysts Muffet McGraw and Megan McKeown to round out the early rounds.  

Duncan, Carter and Ogwumike are then on-site Tampa for the Women’s Final Four to bring fans all the insights and analysis for the semifinals and championship.

For the second consecutive year, post-season coverage will feature rules analyst with the studio crews from the Sweet 16 through the final buzzer. Lisa Mattingly and Violet Palmer will bring their expertise to the broadcast.

Commentator pairings and locations for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship will be announced Monday, March 17.

Women’s Final Four MegaCast Options
ESPN’s one-of-a-kind production of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship will deploy multiple platforms as part of its signature MegaCast presentation across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN+.

The fan-favorite alternate cast, The Bird & Taurasi Show Presented by AT&T, returns for its fourth year featuring collegiate and WNBA legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi. The dynamic duo will once again bring their signature banter and unique perspective to fans, live from the BTS set inside Amalie Arena. There will be no shortage of star power with guests from across the spectrum of sports and pop culture. The show will be available on ESPN2 and ESPN+ for the semifinal games, then will air on ESPN and ESPN+ for Sunday’s championship.

Additional MegaCast information to be released in the coming weeks.

Enhanced Coverage

• The 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship will feature more games on ABC and ESPN than ever before.
• Fans will see an enhanced studio presence, with 19 studio shows throughout the course of the championship.
• This postseason, AT&T is sponsoring a digital live show for the second straight season. The Wrap-Up Presented by AT&T will offer in-depth analysis from the games of the day. The show can be streamed live across ESPN YouTube, ESPN Facebook and the ESPN App.
• Game On: Journey to the NCAA Championship – the one-hour women’s basketball special – will debut on Thursday, March 20 at 5 p.m. on ESPN. Hosted by Kelsey Riggs Cuff, the special will showcase features on JuJu Watkins (USC), Flau’Jae Johnson (LSU), Olivia Miles (Notre Dame), Georgia Amore (Kentucky), Te-Hina Pao-pao (South Carolina) and Sarah Strong (UConn). The original series will also be available streaming on ESPN+ beginning March 20.

SEC Network
SEC Now returns for postseason coverage of the nine women’s teams representing the Southeastern Conference in the women’s NCAA Tournament. Hosts Peter Burns, Alyssa Lang and Dari Nowkhah will be joined by a rotating group of panelists throughout the two tournaments, including SEC Network analysts Pat Bradley, Nikki Fargas and Patric Young. Should an SEC squad advance to the Women’s Final Four, Lang would team up with Steffi Sorensen to bring fans all the action from Tampa.

ACC Network
ACC Network’s signature basketball show Nothing But Net will have postseason coverage of the ACC’s eight women’s teams participating in the NCAA Tournament, airing nightly on the days ACC programs play their games. A rotating cast of ACCN college basketball analysts, including Kelley Deyo, Kelly Gramlich, Ivory Latta, Muffet McGraw, Joel Berry II, Carlos Boozer, Michael Carter-Williams, Luke Hancock and Terrence Oglesby, will offer insight and analysis alongside hosts Taylor Tannebaum and Justin Walters. Plus, ACC PM, ACCN’s weekday afternoon show covering all things ACC sports with host Mark Packer, will air daily at 4 p.m., with analysis, insights and interviews with players and coaches across the conference.

ESPN.com
ESPN.com will break down the bracket with everything fans need to know about all 68 teams. Content ahead of the first round will include:

• Ranking the top 25 players in the tournament ahead of the first round, Sweet 16 and Final Four.
• Final Four picks and bold predictions, including which 1-seed has the toughest path to Tampa.
• The top 10 transfers who will impact March Madness.
• The 10 games over the first four days that could end in upsets.
• On-site coverage, live reaction and takeaways from each day of games.
• Bracketologist Charlie Creme will re-seed the field at the conclusion of each round.
• Continued coverage of South Carolina’s quest to repeat and UConn’s pursuit of its first title since 2016.

ESPN Tournament Challenge Games Now Open
Brackets for the women’s games opened on Selection Sunday. Fans can submit up to 25 brackets and join up to 10 groups each at ESPN.com/tcwomen. Fans can also complete and submit brackets on the ESPN Tournament Challenge App for iOS and Android, or on the ESPN App. Like all ESPN Fantasy games, Tournament Challenge is free to play.

Participation in the ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge has more than doubled since 2019, growing by 103%, part of the significant upward trend in the popularity of women’s sports.

Capital One, Nissan and Allstate are set to sponsor the Women’s Tournament Challenge, while Invesco QQQ will sponsor the Women’s Second Chance Bracket in its second year.

NCAA Division I Women’s Championship Schedule Presented by Capital One
Games available across ESPN platforms and via the ESPN App

Updated matchups will be found here throughout the Championship
Games after the first round are subject to change

DII/DIII Coverage
For the first time, ESPN will stream the semifinals and championship games of both the DII and DIII Women’s Basketball Championships, following the new rights agreement with the NCAA.

ESPN+ is slated to stream the semifinals and title game of both the Division II/III Women’s Basketball Tournament, with DIII set for March 20/22 and the DII games on March 26/28, respectively. The DIII Championship will air tape delayed on ESPNU at 8:30 p.m., on Wednesday, April 2, with the DII title game on ESPNU at 10 p.m., on Tuesday, April 8.

WBIT Coverage
The preliminary rounds of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) (March 20-27) can be streamed live on ESPN+, while the semifinal games on Monday, March 31 will air on ESPNU at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. The WBIT Championship is slated to air on ESPN2 at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2. Krista Blunk and Anne O’Neil will be on the call for the semifinals and championship game.