Fubo News breaks down the women’s college basketball championship favorites. Watch women’s college basketball on Fubo all season long.
When the season ended last year women’s college basketball crowned a different champion for the fifth straight season in a row. Add in the COVID season and it has been six straight seasons where a different champion has been crowned.
This season has all the makings of continuing that trend after nearly every top-ranked team has been upset or shown some vulnerability.
Of last season’s Final Four teams, only top-ranked South Carolina and fourth-ranked Iowa are in the top four today. Reigning champion LSU is seventh and Virginia Tech is 15th to round out the other two Final Four contenders from last season.
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Going a step further, the other four teams that made up the Elite Eight are not in the contender’s picture outside of potentially Ohio State. The Buckeyes are ranked 12th in the country, Louisville is ranked 18th with both Miami (FL) and Maryland unranked.
Historically the longest previous stretch of different National Champions was five years. That happened twice between the 1984-1988 seasons and again between the 1991-1995 seasons.
Since then Teams like UConn and Tennessee have collected championships like trading cards eliminating parity from the sport.
That parity has seemed to return in recent years with injuries impacting the Huskies’ championship aspirations and more teams getting into the mix with the top recruits. The top players in the country have spread out more and more opening up contenders.
During these five years five different teams (50%) made the National Championship Game for the first or second time in school history. Another two teams made their first Final Four giving the past five seasons of women’s college basketball seven new faces filling 20 spots that are usually very familiar.
All of that paints the picture for this season.
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Several schools are building a resume to become another fresh face in the Final Four, National Championship Game or even win it all like the Tigers did last season.
As of today, 19 teams in the Top 25 have not won a National Championship in school history. Only five have made a Final Four with the 19 teams making a collective nine Final Fours since the 1986-1987 season.
Looking at those teams and their Final Four appearances since the 1986-1987 season: UCLA (0), N.C. State (one, not since 97-98), Texas (three, not since 86-87), USC (zero since 86-87), Colorado (0), Utah (0), Ohio State (one, not since 92-93), Kansas State (0), Indiana (0), Louisville (0), Marquette (0), Florida State (0), Washington State (0), Creighton (0), Gonzaga (0), North Carolina (three, not since 06-07) and Penn State (one, not since 99-00).
Of these new faces looking to crash the championship scene the Bruins (+1400) are building the best profile. They are ninth in points per game led by five players averaging double-figures scoring.
They made it to the Sweet 16 before losing to the Gamecocks (59-43). This season the Bruins aim to make it further in the tournament and contend for their first national championship.
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Other teams to keep an eye on are the Wolfpack who have wins over two highly ranked teams already, the Longhorns who just dominated the Huskies, the Buffaloes who upset the defending champions and the Buckeyes who made it to the Elite 8 last season.
All of the big names and former champions are still the odds favorites to win the National Championship this season.
Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes are the natural favorites to continue the trend and make it seven straight seasons with a different champion.
They made it to the national championship game last season coming one bad half of basketball away from winning it all. Clark is by far the best player in the country filling up the stat sheet in ways that no player ever has in the history of the game.
Since the 2018-2019 season when Notre Dame won its second national championship, there has been one common thread in each of the five teams that won it all – a superstar talent leading the way.
The Fighting Irish had Arike Ogunbowale, Baylor had NaLyssa Smith, the Cardinal featured Haley Jones and a young Cameron Brink, the Gamecocks were led by Aliyah Boston and the Tigers saw Angel Reese breakout as a star.
Whether it is Clark leading the Hawkeyes to their first championship in school history or one of the other 18 schools in the Top 25 that have not had success at the highest level in roughly 30 years – this is an era of parity in women’s college basketball that has never been seen before.
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