After two days and 32 games, the first round of the 2025 Women’s NCAA Tournament came to a close late on Saturday night when No. 3 seed LSU completed a dominant 55-point victory over No. 14 seed San Diego State. That was a fitting way for the largely uneventful first round to end.
We can only hope that the subsequent rounds of this year’s Big Dance are much more entertaining. For now, let’s take a look at some winners and losers from the first round.
Winner: Big Ten
The reimagined Big Ten set a record by sending 12 teams to the Big Dance this year, far surpassing the previous mark of nine by the SEC in 2016 and the Big East in 2011. Furthermore, the Big Ten had the No. 1 overall seed in UCLA and another No. 1 seed in USC. This was the first time since 2022 that one conference had multiple No. 1 seeds.
The dozen Big Ten teams represented the conference well by going 10-2 between the First Four and first round. Only Washington and Nebraska came up short, and both of those defeats were by five points or fewer. On the flip side, six of their 10 wins came by double digits, including a 46-point win by USC, a 38-point victory by UCLA and a 35-point triumph by Iowa.
Only one Big Ten team has ever…
