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 andLonghornswill 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.
Kamy Peppler #1 of the Green Bay Phoenix reacts against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the third quarter during the First Round of the Women's NCAA Tournament at Williams Arena on March 20, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Golden Gophers defeated the Phoenix 75-58." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
March Sadness hits hard in the Women's NCAA basketball tournament
Kamy Peppler #1 of the Green Bay Phoenix reacts against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the third quarter during the First Round of theWomen's NCAA Tournamentat Williams Arena on March 20, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Golden Gophers defeated the Phoenix 75-58.
Much has been made throughout this season about the rise of parity in women's college basketball. Texas coach Vic Schaefer — who is the first coach in to take two different programs to multiple Final Fours, previously leading Mississippi State to the national title game in back-to-back seasons — talked about the increased equivalency in skill among teams after his Longhorns hammered Michigan 77-41 in the Elite Eight on Monday night.
"The parity in our game right now is at an all-time high. I think the support, the fan bases across the country, the crowds that schools are drawing, but I think the parity is what really jumps out at me," Schaefer said. "I think there are so many good players, so many good coaches. I think universities are investing in their women's basketball programs.
"This is a prime example of when you invest in something and you pour it into something and you do it the right way, you are going to get a good return."
A case could be made that parity is improving in women's basketball and the playing field has beenleveled a bit thanks to the transfer portal, NIL, revenue sharing and some universities pouring big money into their women's basketball programs.
Several teams this season ended long NCAA Tournament droughts. Texas Tech won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2005, Clemson went dancing for just the second time since 2002, Minnesota made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005, Notre Dame advanced to the Elite Eight as a No. 6 seed for the first time in Niele Ivey's tenure as head coach, and Virginia — a No. 10 seed this year — advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000. All of those teams bolstered their rosters with transfers last offseason, transforming their outlooks for the year.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, however, defines parity as "the quality or state of being equal or equivalent."
And it's hard to argue Texas Tech is on the same playing field as UConn, or Clemson is capable of dominating opponents the way that UCLA has, or Virginia could hang with a team like Texas. Fans across the country saw what happened when Minnesota met the Bruins in the Sweet 16 and when the Fighting Irish clashed with the Huskies in the Elite Eight — both UCLA and UConn won by double figures.
So while parity has perhaps increased across the wide middle of the sport, it hasn't reached the very top, where — for the most part — the same four teams were behemoths from the beginning to the end of the season, save for a few regular-season upsets here and there.
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It's easy to see on the surface why the Huskies, Bruins, Longhorns and Gamecocks have separated themselves. They have great coaches and extremely talented players. UConn's Azzi Fudd, UCLA's Lauren Betts and South Carolina's Raven Johnson will all be first-round picks in the upcoming WNBA draft. Each team has multiple All-American caliber players starring for them, from UConn's Sarah Strong to Texas' duo of Madison Booker and Rori Harmon.
But a quantifiable data point that shows why these four teams have risen above the rest is money.
Players to watch in 2026 women's NCAA basketball tournament
Matt Brown, the publisher of the Extra Points newsletter which often focuses on the intersection of business and college athletics,obtained the operating budgets for women's basketballprograms in fiscal year 2025. Want to take a guess as to where these teams landed in spending?
UConn was first, South Carolina was second, Texas was fourth and UCLA was sixth — each spending north of $9 million.
Now, these figures don't include things like NIL and revenue sharing — the money that schools can directly give to athletes now thanks to the House Settlement. But it's safe to assume if these programs are spending nearly eight figures in operating expenses, their players are probably getting healthy paychecks too.
While stationed in front of loud microphones on big stages this month in the NCAA Tournament, coaches around the country used those platforms to not-so-subtly ask for more money.
"In this day and age, we've got to have more resources to be able to fund a team. I have no idea what LSU's cap is or what their total amount is for their team, but ours is probably an eighth of it, if that," Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich said after losing to the Tigers in the second round. "I don't have a million-dollar player on my team. That doesn't mean everything except that there's a huge difference in the level of talent. We have to have that investment to be able to compete at that level."
It's worth noting LSU — which won the national championship in 2023 and has since advanced to the second weekend of the tournament in three straight seasons — was third in operational spending in fiscal year 2025 at about $12.1 million.
"You're going to need continuous support. There's got to be an investment in your sport, because it's changing. It really is," Kentucky head coach Kenny Brooks said after losing to Texas in the Sweet 16. "I am not one of those guys that's going to sit up here and say you have to have the most money to compete, but you need to be able to have the investment put into you. Then it is my job to spread it out the right way."
Texas spent about $3.4 million more than Kentucky did in fiscal year 2025. LSU spent about $4.1 million more than Texas Tech.
Those differences that Gerlich talked about were easy to see on the box scores in the Elite Eight this past weekend, where the Huskies, Bruins, Longhorns and Gamecocks won their games by an average margin of 23 points — the largest ever in that round in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
"There's more parity coming, but there's still the upper echelon of NCAA Division I women's basketball and there's the rest of us," Gerlich said. "We have to be able to fund our program in the NIL space and the rev share space to be able to compete at the level to win championships."
Texas Tech is a school thatmade no secretsabout buying its way to national title-contending status in football andsoftball. In women's basketball, the same is true — to win, schools have to spend.
Until more programs go deeper into their wallets like UConn, UCLA, Texas, South Carolina and LSU, there will continue to be a clear separation between the championship contenders and the other teams in the sport.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Women's basketball is seeing more parity, but not at the Final Four
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