NCAA women's tournament: How will UConn, conference upsets be placed in bracket?

As women's college basketball conference tournaments continue, here are the four main questions facing the selection committee ahead of the NCAA tournament bracket reveal.

The women's bracket will be unveiled on Selection Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. This season, there will be 68 teams in the field and the Final Four will be held at the Target Center in Minneapolis on April 1 and 3.

Will Louisville’s loss hurt its spot as the final No. 1 seed?

South Carolina is unequivocally the No. 1 overall seed, even after the SEC championship game loss to Kentucky. The Gamecocks are first in NET rankings, went 11-0 against Associated Press Top 25-ranked teams and defeated each of the programs directly below them.

Stanford and N.C. State are on the 1-seed line and remain there after conference tournament championships. The fourth and final spot is less certain.

Louisville held the best chances given non-conference wins against Michigan, Kentucky, Connecticut, Georgia Tech and a 16-2 mark in ACC play. The Cardinals were the final 1-seed in the Wichita region over the second two of three reveals by the NCAA selection committee.

Then they were upset in the final seconds of the ACC quarterfinal by Miami, opening the door for Baylor (24-5) and possibly Iowa State (25-5) to move into that spot. Both are top-10 in NET rankings and were the fifth and sixth, respectively, overall seeds in the last reveal on Feb. 28.

Baylor, after winning its 12th straight regular season Big 12 title, has the best chance to move up. The Bears (25-5) defeated Iowa State in both meetings and have one more win in the conference than the Cyclones. They would have to win the Big 12 conference tournament, which tips Thursday, to be considered. Baylor has no signature wins outside of the conference and lost to Maryland and Michigan.

What to do about the Huskies

Connecticut might be taking a long trip to its NCAA tournament regional for the first time since 2014. The Huskies will be a No. 2 or No. 3 seed. The bigger question is in which region they’ll land. The committee takes geography into account and might have to rearrange teams based on the number from each conference on the top four lines.

UConn was the top 3-seed in the last reveal and have since rolled through its Big East tournament with Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd on the floor together again. Two of the No. 2 seeds (LSU, Michigan) fell in the quarterfinals of their conference tournaments, opening upward movement for the Huskies.

The women’s tournament does not strictly follow the S-curve when placing teams in regions. The committee still takes into consideration geography, so it could place UConn in the Bridgeport region if it makes sense with other teams on their line. If the Huskies are the top No. 2 seed, for example, the committee could place them close to home without geographically disadvantaging others above them.

UConn can't move up that far given a couple of signature wins (Notre Dame, Tennessee) overshadowed by losses to South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Oregon and conference foe Villanova. The bigger conundrum will be how many teams in a single conference are bunched around it.

Bracket principles stipulate that for the top 16, the first four teams from a conference should be placed in different regions. And the committee should avoid having conference teams meet before the regional final.

“We have to follow the principles,” NCAA selection committee chair Nina King said after the final reveal. “The Big 12 and Big Ten teams, that’s something that could keep UConn out of Bridgeport. It's not impossible, as we saw it for the last reveal. If they go up to the 2-line, it will be easier, I think, for them to be in Connecticut.”

The Huskies were a 3-seed in each reveal, moving from No. 11 overall in the first two to No. 9. They've been in Spokane, Bridgeport and most recently Greensboro with No. 1 overall South Carolina. Baylor (seeded fifth overall in the last reveal), Iowa State (6), Texas (10) and Oklahoma (16) are all in play this week. The Big Ten's pack of Michigan (8), Maryland (12), Iowa (14) and Indiana (15) will move around by tournament time.

What impact will conference upsets have on the bracket?

All four of the Power Five conference championship games held on Sunday featured a low-seeded upset candidate. The committee will have to decide how much weight to give those wins or losses and where the teams will ultimately land.

Kentucky (19-11, NET 34) did the most in the past three weeks to move from out of the field to solidly in contention at a 6-to-8 seed. The Wildcats started SEC play 2-8 with two four-game losing streaks. Since then, they have rattled off 10 straight that include LSU (NET 20), Tennessee (17) and South Carolina (1) to win the SEC championship for the first time in 40 years.

Utah and Miami, closer to the bubble, have beefed up their resumes with runner-up finishes. Alabama's upset of Georgia in the SEC tournament's second round gave it a second signature win in addition to Tennessee on bubble consideration.

The Big Ten, which provided a rotating leaderboard until the final day, was a Nos. 5 vs. 2 affair the committee will need to parse out that jumble after Michigan, a projected 2-seed, and Maryland, a projected 3, lost in the quarterfinals. Iowa defeated Indiana in the championship and both were slated as 4-seeds.

Arizona (NET 18) also lost in the quarterfinal of the Pac-12 tournament and could move off its 3-seed line. Its signature win is in overtime against Louisville, but the Wildcats have concerning losses to USC (75), Arizona State (47), Washington State (58) and UCLA (41).

Have Missouri, Villanova, DePaul done enough?

Missouri (Net 49) and Villanova (NET 70) pulled arguably the two largest upsets of the regular season, but it might not be enough for these bubble teams.

Missouri, the only team to take down No. 1 South Carolina in the regular season, is on the bubble at 18-12 overall, 7-9 in SEC play and a 49 NET ranking. The only other major win is against Florida, though the Tigers came close against Baylor (lost by two) and LSU (by two in overtime), both 2-seed contenders. A win in the SEC tournament would have helped, but they lost to Arkansas for a third time this season in overtime.

Villanova ended UConn's 145-game conference winning streak (169 including conference tournaments) in early February and are also on the bubble. The Wildcats' major nonconference game was an 11-point loss to Maryland (NET 14) and another double-digit loss to Princeton (NET 21). Reaching the Big East tournament championship game could give them a boost if there is chalk in the conference tournaments.

Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma is high on the competitiveness in the Big East and said last week he would be "disappointed" if four teams didn't make it. Creighton (NET 32) appears to be in the field and DePaul (NET 52) is on the bubble, though a signature win against Kentucky is looking even better.