NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Information & NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Links at HealthHaven.com

NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
	Current season or competition:; 2009 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
Sport	Basketball
Founded	1982
No. of teams	64
Country(ies)	NCAA Division I ( United States)
Most recent champion(s)	Connecticut
TV partner(s)	ESPN (Championship game)
Official website	NCAA.com

The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981-82 season. The NCAA tournament was preceded by the AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, which was held annually from 1972 to 1982.

Attendance and interest have grown over the years, especially since 2003, when the final championship game was moved to the Tuesday following the Monday men's championship game. The women's championship game is now the final overall game of the college basketball season.

The tournament bracket is made up of champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large bids, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) data.

Unlike the men's tournament, there are only 33 at-large bids, and no play-in game. The women's tournament, like the men's, is staged in a single elimination format, and is part of the media and public frenzy known colloquially as March Madness.

All 63 games have been broadcast on television since 2003 on ESPN and ESPN2. Similar to men's tournament coverage on CBS, local teams are shown on each channel when available, with "whip-around" coverage designed to showcase the most competitive contests in the rest of the country.

[edit] Tournament format

Main article: NCAA basketball tournament selection process

A total of 64 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. 30 of the 64 teams earn automatic bids by winning their respective conference tournaments. Since the Ivy League does not conduct a post-season tournament, the regular-season conference champion receives an automatic bid. The remaining teams are granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible^{[citation needed]}. The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc.

[edit] Number of teams, and seeding

The first NCAA women's basketball tournament was held in 1982. The AIAW also held a basketball tournament in 1982, but most of the top teams, including defending AIAW champion Louisiana Tech, decided to participate in the NCAA tournament. Ultimately, this resulted in the dissolution of the AIAW.

The championship consisted of 32 teams from 1982-1985, 40 teams from 1986-1988, and 48 teams from 1989-1993. Since 1994 64 teams compete in each tournament.

Prior to 1996, seeding was conducted on a regional basis. The top teams (eight in the 32-, 40-, and 48-team formats, and 16 in the 64-team format) were ranked and seeded on a national basis. The remaining teams were then seeded based on their geographic region. Teams were moved outside of its geographic region only if it was necessary to balance the bracket, or if the proximity of an opponent outside of its region would be comparable and a more competitive game would result. In 1993, the all teams except for the top four were explicitly unseeded. The regional seeding resumed in 1994. In 1996, seeds were assigned on a national basis using an "S-Curve" format^{[clarification needed]} similar to the process used in selecting the field for the men's tournament.

[edit] Selection process

For more details on this topic, see NCAA basketball tournament selection process.

A special selection committee appointed by the NCAA determines which 64 teams will enter the tournament, and where they will be seeded and placed in the bracket. Because of the automatic bids, only 33 teams (the at-large bids) rely on the selection committee to secure them a spot in the tournament.

[edit] Women's NCAA Division I basketball champions

Year	Winner	Score	Opponent	Venue
1982	Louisiana Tech	76-62	Cheyney State	Norfolk Scope (Norfolk, Virginia)
1983	USC	69-67	Louisiana Tech	Norfolk Scope (Norfolk, Virginia)
1984	USC	72-61	Tennessee	Pauley Pavilion (Los Angeles, California)
1985	Old Dominion	70-65	Georgia	Frank Erwin Center (Austin, Texas)
1986	Texas	97-81	USC	Rupp Arena (Lexington, Kentucky)
1987	Tennessee	67-44	Louisiana Tech	Frank Erwin Center (Austin, Texas)
1988	Louisiana Tech	56-54	Auburn	Tacoma Dome (Tacoma, Washington)
1989	Tennessee	76-70	Auburn	Tacoma Dome (Tacoma, Washington)
1990	Stanford	88-81	Auburn	Thompson-Boling Arena (Knoxville, Tennessee)
1991	Tennessee	70-67 (OT)	Virginia	Lakefront Arena (New Orleans, Louisiana)
1992	Stanford	78-62	Western Kentucky	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (Los Angeles, California)
1993	Texas Tech	84-82	Ohio State	Omni Coliseum (Atlanta, Georgia)
1994	North Carolina	60-59	Louisiana Tech	Richmond Coliseum (Richmond, Virginia)
1995	Connecticut	70-64	Tennessee	Target Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
1996	Tennessee	83-65	Georgia	Charlotte Coliseum (Charlotte, North Carolina)
1997	Tennessee	68-59	Old Dominion	Riverfront Coliseum (Cincinnati, Ohio)
1998	Tennessee	93-75	Louisiana Tech	Kemper Arena (Kansas City, Missouri)
1999	Purdue	62-45	Duke	HP Pavilion at San Jose (San Jose, California)
2000	Connecticut	71-52	Tennessee	Wachovia Center (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
2001	Notre Dame	68-66	Purdue	Scottrade Center (St. Louis, Missouri)
2002	Connecticut	82-70	Oklahoma	Alamodome (San Antonio, Texas)
2003	Connecticut	73-68	Tennessee	Georgia Dome (Atlanta, Georgia)
2004	Connecticut	70-61	Tennessee	New Orleans Arena (New Orleans, Louisiana)
2005	Baylor	84-62	Michigan State	RCA Dome (Indianapolis, Indiana)
2006	Maryland	78-75 (OT)	Duke	TD Banknorth Garden (Boston, Massachusetts)
2007	Tennessee	59-46	Rutgers	Quicken Loans Arena (Cleveland, Ohio)
2008	Tennessee	64-48	Stanford	St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa, Florida)
2009	Connecticut	76-54	Louisville	Scottrade Center (St. Louis, Missouri)
2010				Alamodome (San Antonio, Texas)
2011				Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Indiana)
2012				Pepsi Center (Denver, Colorado)
2013				New Orleans Arena (New Orleans, Louisiana)
2014				Sommet Center (Nashville, Tennessee)
2015				St. Pete Times Forum (Tampa, Florida)
2016				Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Indiana)

[edit] NCAA championships by school

Wins	School	Championships
8	Tennessee	1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008
6	Connecticut	1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009
2	Louisiana Tech	1982, 1988
	Southern California	1983, 1984
	Stanford	1990, 1992
1	Old Dominion	1985
	Texas	1986
	Texas Tech	1993
	North Carolina	1994
	Purdue	1999
	Notre Dame	2001
	Baylor	2005
	Maryland	2006

[edit] NCAA Final Fours by school

School	Number
Tennessee	18
Louisiana Tech, Connecticut	10
Stanford	8
LSU, Georgia	5
Duke	4
North Carolina, Maryland, Purdue, Old Dominion, Virginia, USC, Texas, Auburn, Western Kentucky	3
Rutgers, Notre Dame, Cheyney St., Missouri St., Long Beach St., Oklahoma	2
Texas Tech, Baylor, Louisville, Ohio St., Vanderbilt, Iowa, Minnesota, Alabama, NC State, Arkansas, Michigan St., Penn St., Northeast Louisiana	1

[edit] Multiple NCAA championship coaches

Coach	School	Championships
Pat Summitt	Tennessee	8
Geno Auriemma	Connecticut	6
Tara VanDerveer	Stanford	2

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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