Women’s College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: UCLA, UConn Dominate

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond. The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET “takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses,” the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site. Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly. With that, here are the top 10 women’s college basketball teams through March 9, according to NET. The Top 10 10. Iowa (previous: 9) Sure, Iowa got absolutely smoked by UCLA, but how much can you punish the Hawkeyes for that? UCLA stole some votes from UConn in the poll this week for a reason; the only thing surprising about that is how it didn’t happen sooner. The Bruins are just that good, and it’s part of why Iowa wasn’t overtaken in the top 10 by the likes of Louisville, TCU or Oklahoma, all of which had their own difficulties in tournament play. 9. Minnesota (previous: 8) Minnesota’s lone game in the last week was against Ohio State, which, no offense to the Buckeyes, is not Iowa. Still, with the aforementioned losses of the other teams that could have swept in to take the Golden Gophers’ spot, the penalty was just falling back to ninth. 8. Duke (previous: 10) Duke, unlike the Hawkeyes and Gophers, won its own tournament, which contributed to Louisville not rising into the top 10 and the Blue Devils leapfrogging both of the teams you just read about. 7. Vanderbilt (previous: 7) Vanderbilt lost four games in the 2025-2026 regular season and SEC tournament. Two of those losses came against Ole Miss, which just hasn’t been a great matchup for the Commodores. The good news is that the two aren’t necessarily going to face off in March Madness, so there’s hope for the Dores to make a deep run yet. 6. Michigan (previous: 6) Michigan handled Oregon just fine to kick off what should have been a deep Big Ten tournament run, but then ran into Iowa, which held the Wolverines to 42 points on 27% shooting. Michigan can turn the ball over a little too much — both due to its aggressive passing and sloppy handling and decision-making — and it goes through stretches where the basket seems a million miles away and very tiny. Its success in March depends entirely on whether the Wolverines are in one of those stretches now, or if the Iowa game was a one-off, as the other version of Michigan we have seen again and again this year is one that has made both UConn and UCLA sweat. 5. LSU (previous: 5) LSU, like Michigan and Vanderbilt, lost in its conference tournament. Before its defeat at the hands of South Carolina, Kim Mulkey’s squad routed Oklahoma, dropping 112 points on the Sooners — that helped it stay put just as much as the two teams closest to them in the rankings losing, too. 4. Texas (previous: 4) Texas beat South Carolina to win the SEC tournament, getting out to an early lead that allowed the Longhorns to avoid having to throw up a bunch of 3s to try to play catch-up with an offense as high-powered as the Gamecocks’. That wasn’t enough for Texas to move ahead of South Carolina in NET, however: South Carolina has more road wins (11 to 7) and more Quad 2 victories (7 to 5) to help balance out the Longhorns’ two additional Quad 1 dubs. The margin between these two must be razor-thin, though, and NET sees both as top-line seeds in March. 3. South Carolina (previous: 3) Besting Kentucky and then LSU leading up to a loss to Texas likely helped South Carolina soften that blow slightly — the Longhorns won the conference championship, but had an easier road getting there, too, by downing Ole Miss and Alabama. As said, razor-thin margins between the two, when you can pick things apart to that degree to spot the difference. 2. UCLA (previous: 2) UCLA peeled votes away from UConn in this week’s poll, after two months of the Huskies being a unanimous pick for No. 1. That was less a commentary on UConn — which has won 50 games in a row and just obliterated tourney-caliber Villanova in the Big East final to the same degree UCLA did Iowa in the Big Ten’s, with the main difference being that UConn pulled its starters for good earlier — and more about just how phenomenal UCLA has been. It has been said before and in this space, but the Bruins are a terrifying team loaded with future WNBA players. 1. UConn (previous: 1) UConn showed off its depth all Big East tournament long, blowing out Georgetown, Creighton and then Villanova in three consecutive days without leaning on its starters in any meaningful way in the second half of each game. That depth is going to be the key to its success in March Madness — star sophomore forward Sarah Strong, fifth-year guard Azzi Fudd and defensive wizard, junior guard KK Arnold power the Huskies and their performance is paramount, but having a revolving door of skilled reserves to plop into the lineup to rest those stars will matter against competition much fiercer than what the Big East can provide. Risers and Fallers In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in women’s college basketball in the last week… T4. Samford, 294 to 280: Samford shocked the Southern Conference by winning the tournament final despite being just 6-8 in SoCon play and earning its automatic bid. The 6-seed defeated 3-seed Wofford, 2-seed East Tennessee State and top-seed Chattanooga to do it, too, so no luck of the draw here. T4. Ohio, 172 to 158: Ohio ended its regular season with a W against Eastern Michigan and 25-win Miami (OH), setting it up to be the 5-seed in the MAC tournament this week. T4. FGCU, 171 to 157: Florida Gulf Coast lost its second game in the Atlantic Sun tournament to similarly rated 4-seed Stetson, but before that it annihilated Bellarmine, 94-28. Just keep saying that score out loud for a bit. 3. Air Force, 230 to 213: Air Force lost its regular-season finale against San Diego State, but then rattled off three wins in a row in the Mountain West tournament… including against top-seed San Diego State! It has a chance at the automatic bid on Tuesday, against 3-seed Colorado State. 2. St. Thomas, 245 to 227: The Tommies crushed 4-seed Oral Roberts in the first round of the Summit League tournament, upsetting it 81-54. Then performed admirably against top-seed North Dakota State, losing 63-51. As North Dakota State is a top-50 team, even the loss contributed to this bump. 1. Hawaii, 139 to 117: Hawaii downed UC Riverside by 33 points, then beat Long Beach State even worse, 74-39. The 4-seed in the Big West now awaits its first tournament opponent. …and the five that fell the furthest. T5. Longwood, 212 to 224: Longwood handled UNC Asheville no problem in its opening Big South tourney game, but 2-seed Radford beat the Lancers by 23 points to undo that and more. T5. Drexel, 154 to 166: Drexel might be the CAA 3-seed, but it ended its regular season by losing to Towson, 74-58. Towson came into the matchup just 231st in NET, but it’s higher now. T2. UC Davis, 158 to 171: The Aggies beat Long Beach State, but just by 3 points — as that’s one of the bottom 35 or so teams in Division I, that’s just not enough. Losing to UC Davis as a followup didn’t help, either. T2. Southern Utah, 169 to 182: A 21-point loss to Utah Valley and 16-point defeat against California Baptist do not bode well for the WAC’s 3-seed in tournament play. T2. CSU Bakersfield, 295 to 308: The Roadrunners were hammered by CSUN, 82-47, then lost their regular-season finale to Cal Poly, as well. There was still room to fall before the year concluded. 1. UT Arlington, 216 to 235: Tarleton State and Abilene Christian both topped UT Arlington in the season’s final week, making a bad situation worse for the Mavericks. On the Bubble Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney. 73. San Diego State (previous: 68): We already hit this earlier, but losing to 9-seed Air Force ended San Diego State’s season — it’s 56th in Wins Above Bubble, with a score of -1.60, so it hasn’t done enough to get to the correct side of the bubble. 72. Davidson (previous: 72): Davidson is in a similar situation, as a win against Saint Joseph’s was followed by a loss to top Atlantic 10 seed Rhode Island. The Wildcats are even worse off in WAB than San Diego State. 71. Purdue (previous: 71): Purdue’s time in the Big Ten tournament ended nearly as quickly as it began, with a loss to Oregon. The Boilermakers needed a deep run to get anywhere close to the other side of the bubble; it did not get it. 70. Colorado State (previous: 72): Colorado State won’t need the Selection Committee for an at-large bid if it can defeat Air Force in the Mountain West title game. Also, it needs to win that game; it doesn’t have the WAB or NET or games left to change its fortunes otherwise. 69. Marquette (previous: 66): Marquette played one game in the Big East tournament this weekend, and lost it to Creighton in a mild upset. That’s the end of the Golden Eagles’ season, which has had its bright points but was an overall disappointment. 68. Ball State (previous: 67): Ball State needs a deep run in the MAC tournament to get out of the bubble, and it very well could have one given that it’s the 2-seed. There isn’t any margin for error, however, to the point that the automatic bid is a better bet. 67. Montana State (previous: 70): Montana State is the 2-seed in the Big Sky tournament, and faces Eastern Washington on Tuesday — another team that needs to go deep for a chance at a bid. 66. South Florida (previous: 75): South Florida crushed Temple, 82-36, then beat Tulane by 11 points — that ended its regular season, and set the Bulls up as the 3-seed in the AAC tourney. South Florida looks better in NET than WAB, so this is another team where auto bid might be the only real path. 65. Harvard (previous: 65): Another week of Harvard running in place in the NET rankings — it needs the Ivy League automatic bid to have a chance, as the conference just hasn’t been competitive enough to boost the Crimson’s WAB. 64. Seton Hall (previous: 63): Seton Hall took down St. John’s and then lost to Villanova in the Big East tournament, which did not help with an already uphill battle. The Pirates’ season is over at this point, since it needed more than it managed to get the committee’s attention.