Why are the same women's basketball teams in Final Four? The answer is money

Let’s go back to 1996, when Pat Summitt was dominating at Tennessee, when Geno Auriemma owned just one national championship ring, when Andy Landers had the Georgia Bulldogs playing at a contending level, and when Tara VanDerveer took the year off to focus on the Olympic team but Stanford made the Final Four anyway. The Final Four and national championship for the Women’s NCAA Tournament that year was held in Charlotte, North Carolina — the only time it’s ever been played in the basketball-crazed Tar Heel State. With Michelle Marciniak leading the way for the Lady Vols, Summitt won her fourth of what would be eight national titles.

It was also the only time in the history of the tournament that the same four teams made back-to-back Final Fours, with Tennessee, UConn, Georgia and Stanford all showing up in the Queen City after having met the previous year in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Until now, of course. For the second time in the history of the tournament — which the NCAA began holding in 1982 — the same four teams will be at the Final Four: UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina.

A year ago in Tampa, Florida, the Huskies defeated the Gamecocks for Auriemma’s 12th national championship. The Huskies and Gamecocks will face off in the first of two national semifinal games and the Bruins and Longhorns will play in the second on April 3 in Phoenix at Mortgage Matchup Arena. This is also the fifth time in women’s March Madness history that the Final Four will feature all No.

1 seeds. It last happened in 2018, a year in which Arike Ogunbowale powered Notre Dame to its second national championship. Much has been made throughout this season about the rise of parity in women’s college basketball.