Women's March Madness doesn't always get as mad as the men's side does. Historically, the top talent in the sport has gone to the top schools, creating a lot of imbalances of power between the top teams and the rest of the field.
But that's not to say upsets don't happen. There have been a number of upsets in most rounds of the NCAA Tournament, including the first 16-seed over 1-seed in Division I history.
Let's take a look at some of the biggest upsets in Women's March Madness history.
Defining an NCAA Tournament upset
What is an upset? It's a question philosophers have pondered since the beginning of time, one of the great quandaries of humanity.
Just kidding, but the idea of upsets is great fodder for sportswriters and podcasters, as it gives them an easy way to write about a 68-team tournament.
Quite simply, an upset is when a team that is seeded lower in the tournament beats a team seeded higher. So, when a 3-seed beats a 2-seed, that's technically an upset. Of course, you don't hear a lot of people talk about games like that as upsets. True upsets come when teams seeded farther apart face each other, and the lower seed wins. A 16 beating a 1 is the biggest upset. A 10 beating a 7-seed isn't quite as big of an upset, but it still qualifies.
March Madness is a tournament prone to upsets because of the nature of basketball. There's a reason that professional basketball leagues have multi-game series; in a one-game series, things can get really weird. It's part of the beauty of March that any team could theoretically get hot and beat any other team.
Most shocking first-round upsets
While upsets tend to be rare in the women's tournament, that's not to say they haven't happened. In fact, a 16-seed upset a 1-seed in the women's tournament before it ever happened in the men's tournament.
In 1998, 16-seed Harvard scored the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history, as the Crimson defeated 1-seed Stanford 71-67. What's especially notable about that game is that the women's tournament is structured so that first and second round games are on the campuses of the top four seeds in each region. Not only did Harvard upset Stanford, but it did so on Stanford's home court.
Beyond that, no 14 or 15-seed has ever won a game in the NCAA Tournament, but seven 13-seeds have first-round wins. Rice (2000), Tennessee (2004), Marist (2012) and Wright State (2021) won in the first round then lost in the second round, while Texas A&M (1994), Liberty (2005) and Marist (2007) all made the Sweet Sixteen.
Wright State's 2021 upset win was especially memorable. The Horizon League champions clamped down on one of the nation's best offenses, Arkansas, and held the Razorbacks to 62 points in a 66-62 win.
Biggest cinderella runs in March Madness
The women's Final Four hasn't seen a ton of Cinderella runs. Only one team has ever made the Final Four without being a top-eight seed in the tournament, which happened in 1998 when 9-seed Arkansas made a deep run. That was also the tournament in which the first 1–16 upset happened. That Arkansas team's run was made easier by Stanford losing in the first round.
Arkansas beat 8-seed Hawaii in the first round, 16-seed Harvard in the second round, 5-seed Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen and 2-seed Duke in the Elite Eight. That was the end of the line, though, as a blow-out loss prevented the Razorbacks from being the lowest seed to reach the national championship game.
One double-digit seed has appeared in the Elite Eight, as the 2011 Gonzaga team made it as a No. 11 seed. That team was led by Courtney Vandersloot, one of the best point guards in women's basketball history.
The most recent double-digit seed to make the Elite Eight was Creighton, which made its run as a 10-seed in 2022. The team beat 7-seed Colorado in the first round, then scored a huge upset against 2-seed Iowa, a team that was really starting to build momentum nationally. The team then took down the other Iowa team, Iowa State, in the Sweet Sixteen before finally losing in the Elite Eight to 1-seed South Carolina.
The lowest seed to make the Sweet Sixteen is a No. 13 seed, which has happened three times: Texas A&M in 1994, Liberty in 2005 and Marist in 2007.
In fact, Marist might deserve to hold the title of the best lower-seed program in women's basketball history. The 2007 Marist team is tied for the lowest seed to make the Sweet Sixteen, while 2012 Marist is one of just four 13-seeds to win in the first round.
Most unexpected Final Four & Championship Game upsets
We haven't seen a ton of upsets at the end of the tournament. No team seeded below the 3-seed has ever won the championship, and the 3-seed has only cut down the nets on three occasions. North Carolina was the first in 1994, and then Tennessee did it in 1997.
The most recent example was in 2023 when LSU won the championship as a 3-seed. That was Kim Mulkey's second season in Baton Rouge and the team's seeding was impacted by the narrative around Mulkey's non-conference schedule. Essentially, Mulkey's Baylor teams played a lot of small conference opponents in non-conference, and Mulkey's LSU team continued that tradition. The committee apparently frowned upon the low non-conference strength of schedule. The point is that even in the biggest recent upset, there's still reason to think it might not have really been an upset when LSU beat two-seed Iowa 102-85 in the national championship game.
But was that the biggest upset winner of the tournament? Probably North Carolina in 1994. While technically UNC's championship game win over Louisiana Tech wasn't an upset since the Tar Heels were a three-seed and the Lady Techsters a four-seed, the team had to beat two 1-seeds on the way to the title game.
How upsets have shaped March Madness history
There's still a long way to go to create the kind of parity needed in women's college basketball to create upsets at the same rate they happen on the men's side, but the tides really do feel like they're starting to change.
The 2023 LSU title made them the lowest seed to win the championship this millennium. They aren't alone, though as far as lower seeds winning games in March. 2022 and 2023 both saw multiple 12-seeds beat 5-seeds in the first round, the first time that had happened in back-to-back years. More talent is going to lower tier schools, and it's going to make upsets in women's college basketball more and more prevalent as time goes on.
And that's going to lead to an even more fascinating March Madness tournament. Everyone loves a Cinderella, and more Cinderellas would lead to even more attention paid to the women's tournament.
Will we see a new entry to the list of biggest upsets in 2025?