Auburn Men and UConn Women Get #1 Seeds in NCAA Tourneys

March 17, 2025 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

Two SEC schools -- Florida and Auburn -- along with one ACC school (Duke) and a Big 12 program (Houston) were given the 1-seeds in the 68-team field of the 2024-25 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Additionally, the SEC had two more teams receive 2-seeds -- Tennessee and Alabama.

Get the free printable men's 2024-25 bracket.

In fact, the only SEC schools that did NOT make field were South Carolina and LSU as the conference set a record with 14 bids. The previous high water mark of 11 occurred in the 2010-11 season when the Big East had 11 bids and UConn won the tournament by defeating Butler.

The Huskies are the two-time defending champs and have won 4 titles since that 2010-11 season under 3 different head coaches. The first championship came under Jim Calhoun, the second in the 2013-14 season was under Kevin Ollie, and the last two have been spearheaded by Dan Hurley.

Auburn (+500) was given the over-all No. 1 seed, despite its loss to over-all 2-seed Duke in December, and 3 losses down the stretch. But the Tigers had a schedule that ranked 2nd overall, compared to Duke at 57th in a weak ACC. The Blue Devils (+290) have the best champion odds.

The men's tournament opens play tomorrow (Tuesday) with two of the four play-in games. Since 2011, the "First Four" games have been hosted by Dayton. Prior to that, when the field was 65 teams, there was a single play-in game staged in Dayton since 2001.

This year's "First Four" contests will all be aired on TruTV as part of the framework agreement between CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV.

Tuesday night's opening game at 6:40 p.m. (eastern time) has Alabama State (19-15) taking on St. Francis (16-17).

The Hornets entered the SWAC tournament has the 5-seed, but took down 2-seed Jackson State, 60-56, for the championship. Southern was the 1-seed in that conference but fell 65-62 in a quarterfinal game to 8-seed Grambling State after earning a 1st-round bye.

St. Francis was the 3-seed in the Northeast Conference tournament but won all three of its games by 3 points each. The Red Flash upended 2-seed LIU, 71-68, in the semifinal and defeated 1-seed CCSU, 46-43, in the title game. They are the NEC's only entrant in the tournament.

The winner of that game will be slotted as a 16-seed in the South regional and receive the honor of battling over-all No. 1 seed Auburn in Lexington, Kentucky on Thursday at 2:50 on CBS.

At approximately 9:10, and no later than 30 minutes after the first game ends, the second Tuesday night game has San Diego State taking on North Carolina.

The 21-9 Aztecs are one four Mountain West teams to make the field, despite the fact that SDSU lost in its opening to MWC tourney game, 62-52, to Boise State (24-10). The Broncos did not get a NCAA bid. The conferences three other bids went to Utah State, Colorado State, and New Mexico.

North Carolina (22-13) fell 74-71 to Duke in the ACC semifinals after the Tar Heels entered as the 5-seed and the Blue Devils had the 1-seed. The win gave Duke a 2024-25 season sweep of UNC (3-0) as the Blue Devils handed their Tobacco Road foe 3 of their 13 losses.

The winner of SDSU-UNC gets the 11-seed in the South regional and is awarded the task of facing 6-seed Ole Miss at 4:05 on Friday in Milwaukee on TNT.

Four men's teams received their first-ever NCAA tournament bid - High Point, UC San Diego, SIU Edwardsville, and Omaha.

Women

The women's selection committee gave the over-all No. 1 seed to UConn and 2-seed to South Carolina. Both are +270 favorites to win the women's championship after the Huskies thrashed the Gamecocks 87-58 to end South Carolina' 71-game home winning streak just one month ago (February 16).

Texas and USC received the other 1-seeds. The Big Ten topped all conferences with 12 bids while 10 went to the SEC, 8 to the ACC, and 7 to the Big 12.

The women's First Four will take place this Wednesday and Thursday.

The Wednesday games start at 7 p.m. eastern time on ESPNU with Iowa State and Princeton playing at Notre Dame as they seek to become the 11-seed against 6-seed Michigan. Then, at 9 p.m., UC San Diego and Southern tip off in Los Angeles as the Tritons and Jaguars compete the 16-seed and the right to to play 1-seed UCLA.

The Thursday night First Four games will be on ESPN2, beginning at 7 p.m. with Columbia and Washington tussling in Chapel Hill to earn the 11-seed versus 6-seed West Virginia. The 9 p.m. game has High Point and William & Mary battling in Austin to become the 16-seed against 1-seed Texas.

Six women's teams received their first-ever NCAA tournament bid - George Mason, UC San Diego, William & Mary, Fairleigh Dickinson, Arkansas State and Grand Canyon.