Sacramento bound? Where South Carolina WBB stands in NCAA bracketology after SEC loss
Selection Sunday is officially less than a week away, and the NCAA Tournament bracket for women’s basketball will solidify as various conference tournaments come to a close.
So far, nine automatic bids to the women’s NCAA Tournament have been doled out. Those bids belong to the conference champions in the Ohio Valley (Western Illinois), SoCon (Samford), ACC (Duke), Big Ten (UCLA), SEC (Texas), Atlanta 10 (Rhode Island), Summit League (South Dakota State), Big 12 (West Virginia) and Big South (High Point). Four more teams will clinch their auto-bids on Monday.
Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks will be an at-large team for the first time since 2022 after falling 78-61 to Texas in the SEC Tournament title game on Sunday.
Despite the loss, ESPN pundit Charlie Creme still has South Carolina as one of the four No. 1 seeds in his latest bracketology projections that were released late Sunday night.
Creme has the Gamecocks ranked fourth overall — behind UConn, UCLA and Texas — and they would host the first two rounds of the tournament in Columbia. South Carolina and Texas swapped places among those top four teams after the result of the SEC Tournament final.
Should South Carolina advance, the Gamecocks would be lined up to play the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds in Sacramento Region 4, per ESPN’s projections. USC had been slotted for Fort Worth Region 3, but now ESPN has the Longhorns as the No. 1 seed in that region.
The NCAA Selection Show is 8 p.m. this Sunday on ESPN.
Who could South Carolina face in the NCAA Tournament?
If the NCAA Tournament started today, according to ESPN’s latest projections, South Carolina would host High Point, Oklahoma State and Southern Cal in Columbia for the first two rounds.
The Gamecocks would match up with 16-seed High Point, who won the Big South conference tournament Sunday. The Panthers are 27-5 and will be making their third NCAA Tournament appearance. South Carolina would then play the winner of No. 8 Oklahoma State and No. 9 Southern Cal in the Round of 32.
Oklahoma State finished the year 23-9 after being upset in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament last week. The Cowgirls have been projected as high as a No. 5 seed in the tournament this year by ESPN. Southern Cal has struggled this season, finishing 17-13 after falling in the second round of the Big Ten tournament. South Carolina beat Southern Cal 69-52 back in November.
Southern Cal is one of three familiar faces in the Gamecocks’ projected region.
North Carolina, who South Carolina beat in a preseason exhibition this season, is a No. 5 seed in the region. The Tar Heels, who are 26-7 after being eliminated in the ACC Tournament semifinals. SEC foe Alabama (23-10), who South Carolina beat twice during the regular season, is the No. 6 seed in the region. A matchup against either team wouldn’t come until the Sweet 16 for the Gamecocks.
Other teams in ESPN’s hypothetical region are No. 2 seed Iowa, No. 3 seed TCU and No. 4 seed Minnesota.
Both Iowa and TCU were runner ups in their respective conference tournaments. The Hawkeyes were shellacked 96-45 by UCLA and the Horned Frogs were beat by West Virginia 62-53. A matchup with either team wouldn’t come until the Elite Eight at the earliest.
Minnesota could be South Carolina’s Sweet 16 matchup. The Gophers (22-8) started off the year projected as a No. 11 seed but have played themselves into hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in ESPN’s eyes. Minnesota will likely have to get through North Carolina in the Round of 32 if it is to advance to the Sweet 16.
If South Carolina makes it to the Final Four — for what would be the sixth-straight year — the Gamecocks would be matched up with the winner of Fort Worth Region 1.
Projected No. 1 overall seed UConn looks to be like the strongest candidate to come out of that Fort Worth region and advance to the Final Four. The Huskies (33-0) are playing in the Big East championship Monday.
The two teams who seem most capable of challenging UConn in this hypothetical region are No. 2 seed Vanderbilt and No. 3 seed Michigan. The Commodores (27-4) are having arguably the best season in the program’s recent history.
Michigan (25-6) is the only team that made UConn look relatively beatable this season. Granted, Michigan lost 72-69 to UConn in November but it was the closest game UConn has played all season long. The Huskies’ average scoring margin this year is 38.4 points.
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 11:33 AM.
