March Madness is ramping up with women’s college basketball conference tournaments.
The 2026 NCAA Tournament begins on March 18 and the conference tournaments will go a long way in figuring who is in and who is out. Conference tournament winners get an automatic an bid. Every other team will have to sweat it out on Selection Sunday on March 15 to see if they received at-large bid.
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South Carolina (SEC), UCLA (Big Ten), Duke (ACC) and TCU (Big 12) each earned No. 1 seeds and double-byes in their respective conferences and start play on Friday. All four teams won their conference tournament last season and are looking to repeat.
USA TODAY Sports is following along with the Power Four conference tournaments. Follow along for live updates, highlights and results here:
Texas A&M still has NCAA Tournament hopes, but would play in WBIT
Despite losing to Auburn in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Wednesday night, Texas A&M still believes it is a team worthy of inclusion in the NCAA Tournament. Before losing to the Tigers, the Aggies had won five games in a row.
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“I think we have done everything that we can do to put ourselves in this position to be a NCAA Tournament team, considering the conference that we’re playing in,” Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor said. “There should be 12 teams in the NCAA Tournament from the SEC.”
The Aggies are 33rd in WAB, a perfect 5-0 in Quad 2 games and have the fourth-best strength-of-schedule in the country, based on the average NET ranking of their opponents. But Texas A&M is also just 2-9 in Quad 1 games and has a NET ranking of 61. The reality is that getting into the field of 68 this year is a longshot for Taylor’s team.
However, should Texas A&M be excluded from the NCAA Tournament field, Taylor says they would still entertain an invitation from a lower-tier tournament, like the WBIT.
“Absolutely, we’re going to play postseason basketball,” Taylor said. “This team deserves that. They’ve earned the right to do that.” − Mitchell Northam
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No. 8 Clemson vs. No. 9 Virginia, 11:00 a.m. | ACC Network
Clemson Tigers starting lineup
Head coach: Shawn Poppie
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10 Taylor Johnson-Matthews | G 5-9 – Senior
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11 Rusne Augustinaite | G 6-0 – Junior
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14 Rachel Rose | G 5-7 – Senior
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25 Demeara Hinds | F 6-2- Senior
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32 Raven Thompson | F 5-10 – Senior
Virginia Cavaliers starting lineup
Head coach: Amaka Agugua-Hamilton
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21 Kymora Johnson | G 5-7 – Junior
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1 Paris Clark | G 5-8 – Senior
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23 Romi Levy | G 6-3 – Senior
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12 Caitlin Weimar | F 6-4- Senior
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7 Tabitha Amanze | F 6-4 – Senior
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Women’s college basketball conference tournaments live: Scores, highlights
