Top seeds eye Final Four rematches | AP drops All-America teams | Rugby takes center stage

The kids were so very alright.

Top NCAA seeds eye conference rivalries

With the NCAA tournament’s No. 1 seeds evenly split between the Big Ten and SEC, this year’s Final Four becoming a conference tournament championship rematch doubleheader is real possibility.

• Rather than mixing top seeds across the four quadrants, SEC tournament foes South Carolina and Texas could meet again in the national semis, while a Big Ten repeat between crosstown rivals UCLA and USC stares back from across the bracket.

• South Carolina and Texas have already squared off three times this season, with the Gamecocks holding a 2-1 edge, mirroring USC’s 2-1 record against UCLA across their own three games.

Collision course: As the fourth No. 1 seed, USC’s path to the Final Four is arguably the steepest, with the Trojans potentially facing No. 2 UConn in the Elite Eight for the second straight postseason.

• The Huskies won the pair’s 2024 clash 80-73 behind Paige Bueckers’s 28 points, before falling to eventual tournament runner-up Iowa in the Final Four.

• However, USC has already defeated UConn once this season, taking December’s matchup 72-70 behind JuJu Watkins’s 25-point performance.

• “If you play a good enough schedule, you’re always going to run into somebody you’ve already seen,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said this week.

Bottom line: While the entire March Madness bracket will be fighting for a spot in the tournament’s grand finale, some fans may be gunning for an upset or two to inject a bit of variety into what’s been a highly competitive NCAA season.

AP drops 2024/25 All-America teams

The AP dropped the 2024/25 All-America first, second, and third teams on Wednesday, offering few surprises as top names from star programs dominated the lineup.

• USC’s JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo both earned first-team honors for the second straight year, becoming just the third and fourth players to receive the honor in their first two seasons, respectively.

• UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Texas’s Madison Booker, and UCLA’s Lauren Betts also earned first-team recognition, with the AP’s roster aligning with last week’s National Player of the Year shortlists.

Big picture: Program success and individual achievement strode hand-in-hand across each All-America squad, with all players representing teams seeded No. 3 or higher in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

• The second and third teams were more varied, with the second team tapping LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, UConn’s Sarah Strong, Florida State’s Ta'niya Latson, Kentucky’s Georgia Amoore, and Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles.

• USC’s Kiki Iriafen, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, LSU's Flau'Jae Johnson, Iowa State's Audi Crooks, and Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes earned third-team recognition.

Bottom line: Awards might be a small part of the equation, but the 2024/25 AP All-America teams do reflect a season filled with rising stars and skyrocketing parity.

Rugby’s big step forward

US women’s rugby stole the spotlight this week, as incoming domestic league Women’s Elite Rugby prepares for its first-ever season while USA Rugby gears up for a newly announced series of home friendlies.

• In the lead-up to August’s 2025 Rugby World Cup, the Women’s Eagles will be playing a pair of tune-up friendlies, taking on Japan in Los Angeles on April 26th before facing Canada in Kansas City on May 2nd.

• The national team will then play a final send-off match on July 19th against Fiji in Washington, DC before heading to London for this year’s international tournament.

Big picture: USA Rugby’s Olympic bronze medal performance last summer has prompted increased demand for more consistent women’s rugby programming in the States.

• Some of that demand will be met by Women’s Elite Rugby, with the new six-team league formalizing its sanctioning agreement with USA Rugby earlier this week in anticipation of their March 22nd kick-off.

• “We are confident that the start of WER will be a key moment in the growth of the sport,” said WER president Jessica Hammond-Graf in a statement. “We can’t wait for fans to experience the excitement and intensity of high-level, professional women’s rugby in the US.”

Be there: Tickets to the Eagles’ World Cup send-off tour go on sale March 28th, while tickets to catch WER’s debut season are currently available online.

Unrivaled playoffs pack a punch

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball’s playoffs delivered, with Rose BC’s championship victory over Vinyl drawing the largest TV audience the offseason league has seen to date.

• An average of 364,000 viewers tuned into Monday’s final, peaking at 385,000 and marking a 99% increase from Unrivaled’s record-breaking regular-season average.

• After its postseason success, the league capped its inaugural season having aired the 10 most-watched women’s basketball broadcasts in the history of TNT Sports.

Bottom line: Designed primarily as a TV product, both the league and TNT will carry 2025’s wins far into their partnership’s future — while the WNBA also looks to capitalize on Unrivaled’s ratings successes as its own season-opener nears.

ESPN spotlights women’s football

The Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC) has struck a deal with ESPN, with the broadcast giant set to air the tackle football league’s WNFC IX Cup Championship game live for the first time ever.

• The final matchup of the WNFC’s sixth season will be played on June 21st at The Star, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters.

Big picture: With 17 teams divided into three regional divisions, the WNFC is now aiming to build momentum throughout the first half of 2025, with the goal of setting a new IX Cup Championship attendance of 10,000 fans.

• “This is the moment we’ve been building toward,” said WNFC founder and chair Odessa Jenkins. “The WNFC has always been about proving that women’s football belongs on the biggest stages.”

Quote of the day

Iowa State star Audi Crooks
ahead of the Cyclones’ 68-63 win over Princeton in Wednesday’s First Four NCAA tournament play-in game.