The Baylor women are headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the 24th time. They’ll face a gauntlet: UConn, South Carolina and Texas headline a loaded postseason field.
At The Lariat, we have an incredible track record of making March Madness picks. (Don’t google that.) We reached into another dimension to bring sports desk together like the Spider-Men from that one movie. Check out our predictions below.
Jackson Posey | Sports Editor
Champion: UCLA
The women’s NCAA Tournament always produces heavyweight matchups. The (relative) lack of Cinderella runs allows dynasties to flourish; UConn just earned its 15th No. 1 overall seed and is unsurprisingly joined on the 1-line by Texas and South Carolina.
This year, UCLA crashes the party, as Lauren Betts drops a 20-point double-double in the final to lead the No. 1-seeded Bruins past the Huskies. One year after their first Final Four appearance in the modern era, the Bruins win their first NCAA championship.
Jeffrey Cohen | Sports Writer
Champion: South Carolina
South Carolina has become a powerhouse in women’s basketball under head coach Dawn Staley. The Gamecocks have won three national championships while appearing in seven Final Fours over the last 10 seasons. This year’s team looks to continue that legacy as a No. 1 seed.
It is a difficult path for South Carolina in a region that features teams like Iowa, TCU and Oklahoma, but the Gamecocks have proven time and time again that they are up for the challenge. They finished 11-3 against top-25 opponents and seemed to get stronger as the season progressed. They blew out then-No. 5 Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Ole Miss in the final month and a half of the regular season.
They have seen some close calls against the SEC’s best but emerged on top. The tournament will be no different, as South Carolina marches its way back to another natty led by SEC scoring leader Joyce Edwards.
Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
Champion: UConn
Unlike the men’s side of March Madness, women’s college basketball rarely delivers true Cinderella runs deep into the bracket. More often than not, the top of the bracket holds with powerhouse programs proving exactly where they belong. Women’s college basketball is elite — it always has been — but the 2026 season might be the most competitive the game has ever been.
The usual heavyweights — UConn, South Carolina and UCLA — are right where they so often are in March, guided by coaching royalty in Geno Auriemma, Dawn Staley and Cori Close. But 2026 has also belonged to the climbers, with Vanderbilt leaning on Mikayla Blakes’ star power, Duke building its case as the season went on, and TCU, behind transfers Olivia Miles and Marta Suarez.
The top three spots in Phoenix without a doubt will be filled by the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country: undefeated UConn, UCLA and Vic Schaefer’s Texas Longhorns. But it’s that No. 4 spot where I think things could get tricky. Still, I have South Carolina, led by point guard Raven Johnson, storming through Regional 4 to claim that final berth.
From there, I have Texas taking down UCLA and UConn moving past Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks. Even a year removed from No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers, the trio of Azzi Fudd, Sarah Strong and KK Arnold, along with the rest of the starting five and the depth coming off the bench, makes the Huskies look unstoppable. If they stay healthy, they look built to go back-to-back, with a perfect season and lucky No. 13 calling their name.
Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
Champion: UTSA
History. That is what will define the 2026 women’s NCAA Tournament. Fans of college basketball everywhere will talk about this tournament for the rest of time. Included in everlasting history with such names as Socrates, Shakespeare, Attila the Hun and Martin Luther King Jr. will be the 2026 national champion 16 seed UTSA Roadrunners.
San Antonio has been the epicenter of basketball development for decades, and now it is taking over women’s hoops on the back of the city’s flagship university. The Roadrunners, led by electric senior forward Cheyenne Rowe, will take the sporting world by storm with a dominant first round upset over top-seeded UConn.
Rowe, a team captain who averages 14 points and eight rebounds per game, will lead such a run that national pundits will be forced to open back up the women’s college basketball GOAT conversation. Hey Caitlin Clark, we’re good. The UTSA Roadrunners are here.
The Roadrunners will snag their first national title out of the hands of the heavily favored UCLA Bruins, who are notorious box-score merchants. When the tournament is all said and done, UTSA will never be forgotten as the first 16-seed ever to have the gift of hanging a banner in their rafters. The Roadrunners will hoist a convincing argument for the best women’s college basketball team ever.
