2025 Women’s March Madness: Expert bracket picks, predictions for the Final Four, national championship

Getty Images

The regular season is over and the conference tournaments are in the books. Now, it’s time for the Big Dance of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

Selection Sunday saw the field of 68 set with some interesting draw for the top seeds. No. 1 overall seed UCLA has quite the group of teams it will have to navigate through after winning the Big Ten Tournament. But even that draw did not come without some mild controversy as South Carolina coach Dawn Staley argued that her team should have earned that spot despite also being a No. 1 seed.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” Staley said. “I’d like to get some feedback on how they’ve come to this conclusion. We’ve manufactured a schedule that, if done right, it should produce a No. 1 overall seed.”

Staley’s sentiments were echoed by USC’s coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who believes that her team, which beat UCLA twice during the regular season, was disrespected by the committee, despite also earning a No. 1 seed. 

“I never thought I’d be a 1 seed and feel disrespected,” Gottlieb said on Sunday following the reveal of their seeding. “Sometimes I don’t understand the people who make decisions in women’s college basketball and why they do what they do.”

The final No. 1 seed this year is Texas. Now, all of those teams (and the rest of the field) are on the road to Tampa where they hope to cut down the nets as national champions.

So, which programs from the field will throw a scare into these No. 1 seeds or knock them out of contention? 

To answer this question, we have turned to our CBS women’s basketball experts. Each of these seasoned professionals filled out their women’s NCAA Tournament bracket to help us gauge what could happen once the tournament tips off on Wednesday. These brackets predict a few first round upsets and even tips the hat at which programs could turn into this year’s Cinderella team. But, in the end, only one team will earn the right to call themselves a national champion. 

Let’s take a look at who our our CBS women’s basketball experts believe will end up hoisting the trophy on April 6 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

CBS Sports women’s basketball producer and reporter, Alicia Jay

CBS Sports basketball writer, Jack Maloney

CBS Sports trending and basketball writer, Isabel Gonzalez

SportsLine’s Aaron Barzilai

Sportsline’s Calvin Wetzel

247Sports director of scouting, women’s basketball, Brandon Clay

Ashley Nicole Moss, We Need to Talk NOW Co-Host

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *