The NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament is finally underway after several days separated some of the most exciting conference tournaments from Selection Sunday.
Plenty of drama ensued after the brackets were revealed, as UCLA was an unpopular choice for the No. 1 overall seed. Both USC's Lindsay Gottlieb and South Carolina's Dawn Staley were vocal about why their team should be the top overall seed.
However, being the top team in the tournament does not guarantee that you'll have the easiest road to the Final Four. In fact, one of the coaches who complained actually ended up with the easiest route to the National Semifinal.
Which No. 1 seed has easiest route to Final Four in the women's NCAA Tournament?
The South Carolina Gamecocks have the easiest route to the Final Four in the women's NCAA Tournament, and it is not particularly close. They'll have to fend through top seeds like Duke, North Carolina and Maryland, who are ranked No. 7, No. 20 and No. 28 in the NET Rankings, respectively.
But these three teams have a combined zero Final Four appearances in the last 10 seasons, and the furthest any of them made it last season was the Sweet 16.
If you compare this to the routes that the other No. 1 seeds have, it puts things better into perspective as UCLA, Texas and USC all have remarkably tougher roads.
UCLA, as the top overall seed, has to fight through teams like LSU, Ole Miss, NC State and Baylor, all of whom are ranked between No. 10 and No. 16 in the NET Rankings. Even Florida State and Michigan State, who are the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds in the region, are both ranked in the top 25.
Texas has the No. 5, No. 8, No. 14, No. 19 and No. 23 teams in their region as well, and USC has No. 1, No. 9, No. 13 and No. 18.
South Carolina was already going to be a heavy favorite to win the NCAA Tournament, but giving them the easiest road when they were not the top overall seed was an interesting choice by the selection committee.
Of course, this is March Madness, and you have to beat everyone anyway. But there won't be much resistance to a deep tourney run for South Carolina.