Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks put a decisive seal on an undefeated season in the NCAA women’s championship on Sunday. It’s no surprise that they open as the 2025 favorite to win it all again, with +150 odds on BetMGM. With only one player confirmed so far to be leaving  — Kamilla Cardoso has declared for the WNBA Draft — Staley’s third championship could ring in an age of a true dynasty. (Counterpoint: With a win in 2022 after another undefeated regular season, they already are one.)

Behind the Gamecocks, the odds favor Texas (+325) and UConn (+475). Both teams should be bringing back key starters for the 2024-25 season. Notre Dame +700, USC +1000 and UCLA +1200 round out a top tier of favorites before the odds start thinning out with NC State at +2200 and LSU at +3000.

All of the top five teams have shorter odds than the favorite in the men’s tournament, reflecting the continued gap in parity between the two.

But change is coming for the women’s tournament next year. Conference realignment will shift rivalries and set up new challenges for dominant teams — with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten; Oklahoma and Texas joining South Carolina in the SEC; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah moving to the Big 12; Oregon State and

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said she supports transgender women participating in women’s sports when asked about her stance on the matter during a news conference Saturday.

“I’m on the opinion of, if you’re a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion,” said Staley, whose Gamecocks will face Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the national championship on Sunday.

“The barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game, and I’m OK with that. I really am,” Staley added.

Dawn Staley responded to a question asking if she supports transgender women playing women’s college basketball.

“If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play.”

@RealDanZakpic.twitter.com/5fr2b8vLnt

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) April 6, 2024

South Carolina boasts a perfect 37-0 record and is vying for its third national title. Under Staley, the Gamecocks previously cut down the nets in 2017 and 2022. Her coaching resume also features eight SEC tournament championships, eight regular-season conference titles, a 2020 Olympic gold medal and four Naismith Coach of the Year…

Viewership metrics are an important marker in sports media, given money makes the world go round, but ratings stories in sports are usually adjacent at best to the play on the court or field. That’s not the case for this year’s women’s college basketball tournament. The viewership has rightfully been a massive story — and a subject of significance in an ascendent time for women’s basketball. Iowa’s win over LSU in the Elite Eight, a rematch of last year’s championship game, averaged 12.3 million viewers and peaked at 16 million viewers. It is the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history.

To give you some broader context on the numbers:

• The viewership was higher than every World Series game in 2023;
• It topped four of the five games of the 2023 NBA Finals;
• It beat the 12.1 million viewers for the final round of the Masters last year;
• Only five college football games in 2023 had higher viewership.

UConn’s win over USC in Monday’s other Elite Eight matchup drew 6.7 million viewers (and peaked at 10.4 million viewers), which would have surpassed every women’s college basketball title game viewership since 1996 except for last year’s championship game.

With that kind of viewership momentum, what can we expect from the Final Four? We…

Women’s college basketball is headed to the City of Lights. South Carolina and Notre Dame will meet on the international stage in Paris to open the 2023-24 season, the schools announced Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know:

• The Gamecocks and Fighting Irish will face off on Nov. 6, 2023, and a venue will be announced at a later date this spring.
• The game marks the first time an NCAA regular-season basketball game has been played on Parisian soil.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

How big of a deal is this?

It’s significant, and not just because it’s the first college basketball game played in Paris. The momentum for women’s basketball within the U.S. has shown major strides in recent years — look no further than the viewership and attendance numbers for the 2023 national title game — and this is another big step that we’ve seen taken by other American college sports teams.

And France is likely going to welcome the game with open arms. The country has its own professional league (WNBA fans would recognize this league as the one that often runs the longest/into the W season), and its national team has also made strides recently. Les Bleues took the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, just its second Olympic medal ever. — Jennings

GO DEEPER

What Angel Reese,…

LSU–Virginia Tech and South Carolina–Iowa combined to become the most-viewed Women’s Final Four matchups ever. Here’s what you should know:

• Hawkeyes versus Gamecocks garnered 5.5 million viewers with a peak of 6.6 million.
• Tigers versus Hokies brought in 3.4 million viewers with a peak of 5 million.
• These games were the two most-viewed (men’s or women’s) college basketball games ever on ESPN+, averaging 4.5 million viewers.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Why were these numbers so strong?

Iowa-South Carolina is a matchup that so many people have been wanting for the last two years — an offense led by a generational talent versus one of the best and deepest defensive teams in the recent history of women’s basketball. Then, you had Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston as the headliners — the last two national players of the year, and two of the best individual players women’s college basketball has had over the last decade.

Everyone was hoping these two teams would meet in the Elite Eight in the Greensboro Region a season ago when South Carolina was the No. 1 seed and Iowa was the No. 2 seed. But Iowa lost to Creighton in the second round and the matchup never happened. So, when the bracket came out this year and Iowa and South Carolina were on the same side,…

No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes upset No. 1 South Carolina on Friday, winning 77-73 to advance to the national championship game. Here’s what you should know:

• Caitlin Clark paced Iowa with a game-high 41 points, eight assists and six rebounds. It is a new national semifinal record for points scored.
• The Hawkeyes will take on No. 3 LSU on Sunday in the national championship game.
• This will be Iowa’s first appearance in the national championship.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

What went right for Iowa?

On a night in which two heavyweights traded blows for the entirety of a 40-minute instant classic, the Hawkeyes did just enough to eke out a thrilling upset win. Everything with Iowa — this season and throughout this magical run — starts and ends with Clark, who attempted 31 shots — more than half of her team’s total — and finished with 41 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

South Carolina frustrated her throughout the night, and forced eight turnovers, but a series of timely baskets and made free throws down the stretch proved to be the difference. It certainly helped that center Monika Czinano finished with 18 points in the win, despite dealing with foul trouble.

Friday’s game was also won in the details — Iowa went 14-of-14 at the free throw line, South Carolina…

Top-seeded South Carolina took care of No. 2 seed Maryland in an 86-75 Elite Eight victory Monday to punch its ticket to the women’s Final Four. Here’s what you need to know:

• South Carolina advances to its third consecutive Final Four and fifth under coach Dawn Staley.
• The team improved to 36-0 on the year, a program record for wins in a single season.
• Aliyah Boston led South Carolina with 22 points (10-14 FG) and 10 rebounds.
• The Gamecocks will face No. 2 seed Iowa on Friday with a trip to the national title game on the line.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐄𝐒 @GamecockWBB remains undefeated after taking down Maryland, 86-75 and advances to the Final Four!#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/9j6jV0bZ7R

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 28, 2023

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

What to expect from the Final Four game against Iowa

This is the matchup college basketball fans rooted to see. The game features No. 1 seed South Carolina against a No. 2 seed Iowa, player of the year contenders in Boston and Caitlin Clark, and the sport’s most elite defense in South Carolina against the most high-powered offense in Iowa. In other words, everything a college basketball fan desires.

South Carolina hasn’t lost all season and is…

The third day of the women’s NCAA Tournament is underway, leading off with another dominant win by reigning national champion South Carolina and a victory by Iowa.

The Athletic has you covered with takeaways from the biggest games of the day:

Iowa holds off Georgia, advances to Sweet 16

Iowa (28-6) advanced to its first Sweet 16 since 2021 with a 74-66 win against Georgia in a hard-fought battle from tip-off to the final buzzer. Georgia’s length and athletic ability prevented Iowa from driving and making passes into the paint and negated most second-chance opportunities after a missed shot. With 3:50 left in the game, Iowa had only two second-chance points.

But the Hawkeyes were solid from the perimeter, which is where they were most effective. Caitlin Clark was more of a facilitator rather than an outright scorer but when she needed to score, she did. With 42.8 seconds left and the shot clock dwindling, Clark drove the lane, put the ball off the glass and gave Iowa a four-point lead. Georgia’s Jordan Isaacs and Javyn Nicholson each were whistled for intentional fouls in the final 3.8 seconds. Clark closed it out with four free throws and cupped her ears toward the crowd after her final make. She finished with 22 points and 12 assists. — Scott Dochterman

South Carolina’s…

South Carolina, Indiana, UConn and Stanford were ranked as the No. 1 seeds Thursday by the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee in the first of two top 16 rankings reveals. Here’s what you need to know:

• Defending national champion South Carolina is undefeated this season, with a 24-0 record and a No. 1 ranking in the AP poll.
• The region name and number for the rankings are based on location and the top team’s overall seed number.
• The next rankings reveal is scheduled for Feb. 23 on ESPN.

NCAA top 16

Greenville Regional 1

1. South Carolina
2. Duke
3. Maryland
4. Ohio State

Greenville Regional 2

1. Indiana
2. Utah
3. Notre Dame
4. Villanova

Seattle Regional 4

1. UConn
2. LSU
3. Michigan
4. Virginia Tech

Seattle Regional 3

1. Stanford
2. Iowa
3. Texas
4. North Carolina

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Evaluating LSU, Texas in NCAA’s rankings

The biggest question coming into this first reveal was how the committee would view LSU, which is undefeated but lacking in quality wins relative to the rest of the top teams in the country. Despite sitting at No. 3 in the AP poll, the Tigers are still a No. 2 seed behind two teams with multiple losses. LSU will have an opportunity to move up when it faces off against South Carolina this Sunday and potentially again in the SEC Tournament. One win against the Gamecocks would…

South Carolina is still the class of college hoops, and the Indiana Fever stand to benefit in the draft from the generational talent who’s propelling the Gamecocks in their bid for a repeat. It’s time for the first mailbag of the college season, with a heavy sprinkling of WNBA, because as we all know, there is no offseason.

Is there any movement in the WNBA for owners to follow Mark Davis’ model of investing money into the coach and team? If no, what’s holding these owners back? – Laura I.

There is nothing in the collective bargaining agreement stopping WNBA teams from spending money like Davis does on head-coaching salaries or dedicated WNBA practice facilities. There are some ownership groups that don’t have the money that Davis does, which limits what they can do, but there are owners with deep pockets who haven’t expressed the enthusiasm that Davis has for their WNBA squads.

A notable exception to that trend is Joe Tsai, who has tried to pour more money into the Liberty and circumvented the CBA a year ago by covertly chartering planes for his team during the second half of the season. Per Sports Illustrated reporting, several owners in the league were irate at Tsai knowingly violating WNBA rules. That incident revealed a disconnect between newer ownership…