March Madness wasn't for mid-majors this year.
For the first time since the women's NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, no programs from mid-major conferences advanced to the second round, leaving 32 teams representing the Power Four conferences and the Big East. In the men's tournament, five mid-major teams made the second round.
“NIL at work,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo told The Associated Press. “There have got to be some players who helped
mid-majors last year and excelled that are now on Power Four rosters because they could make more (money) by jumping ship. Typically you wouldn’t do that if it meant less playing time. That’s a big part of that.”
There were 23 teams in the first round from smaller conferences, and they went 0-23. Colorado State, a 12 seed, got the closest, losing 65-62 to Michigan State. The rest lost by double digits, including Southern, which fell by 69 points to South Carolina.
“I’m all about getting a mid-major in. I think it’s good for the game, but we got to get some of them to win some of those games, too,” said Illinois coach Shauna Green, who previously coached Dayton.
Green was an assistant with the Flyers in 2015, when they became the last mid-major to reach the Elite Eight.
“I don’t know if that will ever happen again,” she said.
Deb Antonelli hadn't worked as a broadcaster for women's first- or second-round games over the last decade, instead calling the men's tournament. She wasn't surprised by the lack of mid-major success this year when she returned to the women's side.
“We know the landscape has changed. There is real investment at the highest level for women’s sports.” she said. “The rich are getting richer.”
Antonelli said that with teams now getting financial incentives for winning games in the tournament like the men do, the trend could continue.
“It’s even more impressive that those schools that are investing are getting some small return,” she said. “It doesn’t equal what their investment is, but it's something.”
With no mid-majors advancing, there were also fewer lower-seeded teams winning. No. 10 seed Virginia and No. 9 seed Southern California needed overtime to advance Saturday. The Cavaliers were the first lower seed to win after the better seeds went 16-0 on Friday.
It was the first time since 2023 that two games went to overtime in the same day of the tournament. It's been 26 years since there were three OT games in the first round.
Ninth-seeded Syracuse topped Iowa State for the third and final win by a lower seed. Teams seeded 14 and 15 are still looking for their first wins in the history of the tournament, falling to 0-128 each.
While there hasn't been much parity so far, LSU coach Kim Mulkey thinks there are more teams that could win the championship this year.
“Back when I played, there were only about three teams that could win a natty every year, only about three teams,” the former Louisiana Tech guard said. “Now I think that potentially you could have more than that that can win a natty. I think LSU’s a classic example of that three years ago. We were a 3 seed. We weren’t supposed to win it and we did.”
Fans came to watch the First Four games on Wednesday and Thursday with a 12.2% increase from last season. It's the second highest total since the NCAA expanded the field to 68 teams in 2022. Attendance for the first round was also up from last season, increasing by 11.1% with an average of 7,798 fans at games. Iowa had the fifth highest single-session attendance in history, and West Virginia had the seventh best.
The Big Ten had 11 teams reach the second round followed by eight from the Southeastern Conference and seven from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Big 12 had five and the Big East one — No. 1 overall seed and defending champion UConn.
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AP Sports Writers Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, and Brett Martel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this story.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
