March Madness 2026: 4 teams with the best chance to challenge UConn for the women's NCAA championship

... UConn is a juggernaut. Geno Auriemma's Huskies are somehow better this season after losing Paige Bueckers and will enter the NCAA tournament at 34-0. They won the Big East tournament championship game over Villanova, 90-51. They beat Creighton in the semifinals, 100-51. They won five matchups against ranked opponents by an average of 20 points per game. Only then-No. 6 Michigan managed to stay within single digits of UConn in a 72-69 Huskies win. That was on Nov. 21. [Enter Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem now for your shot at $50K] Since then, only Villanova on Feb. 18 has finished within 14 points of UConn. But that doesn't make the Huskies a sure thing to win their 13th national championship. UConn’s biggest fault is not one of its own. It played a weak Big East schedule without a ranked opponent that it plowed through without challenge. How will it respond when it takes on a battle-tested team deep in NCAA tournament play? There’s at least one team that could reasonably challenge a healthy UConn team in a single-elimination tournament and a handful of SEC teams seeking to join the conversation. These four teams stand the best chance of delivering an upset and UConn’s only loss of the season. UCLA is UConn’s clear No. 1 challenger. In any season which UConn wasn't doing what it was doing, UCLA would be the game’s unquestioned dominant force. The Bruins are 34-1 , with their only loss coming against then-No. 4 Texas on Nov. 26. Since then, they’re 25-0 against a considerably tougher schedule than UConn’s featuring a grueling Big Ten slate. Where UConn faced five ranked opponents, UCLA faced 13. The Bruins beat 12 of them, including a 96-45 drubbing of No. 9 Iowa in the Big Ten championship game. UCLA has a 19-1 record against Quad 1 opponents vs. 9-0 for UConn. Even Auriemma acknowledged after UCLA’s dominant Big Ten championship win that the Bruins would be a fine pick for the No. 1 overall seed. “If you said UCLA is the number one, number one, I would say, ‘Wow, they’re really damn good, and I would have absolutely no problem with that,’” Auriemma said. “I mean, look what they did the last game they played.” UCLA also stacks up reasonably well vs. UConn in advanced analytics. UConn ranks No. 2 in the nation in offensive efficiency. UCLA is No. 1 The Huskies are ranked first in defensive rating while the Bruins are ranked 24th. But UCLA has played a much tougher schedule. These measures do not adjust for opponents. UCLA’s NET ranking is second only to UConn’s. Big Ten Player of the Year and reigning All-American Lauren Betts leads a roster that also features fellow first-team All-Big Ten selection Kiki Rice. As far as challengers to UConn go, there’s UCLA, and there’s everybody else. The rest of UConn’s top challengers come out of the SEC. Leading the charge is a Texas team that handed UCLA its only loss and enters the NCAA tournament on an eight-game win streak that includes five wins over ranked opponents and an SEC tournament championship. Texas made easy work of No. 3 South Carolina in the SEC title game with a 78-61 win and appears to be peaking at the right time. Texas is elite on both ends of the court, ranking fifth in the nation in offensive rating and third in defensive rating. It’s reached those numbers while playing in the nation’s best conference and producing a 14-3 record against Quad 1 opponents. Only UCLA has more Quad 1 wins. All-SEC selections Madison Booker and Rori Harmon lead the way. South Carolina’s taken a slight step back to UConn since winning two national championships in three seasons in 2022 and 2024. But not by much. South Carolina looked like the best of the SEC for most of the season until Texas’ 17-point win in the SEC championship accounted for its second loss to the Longhorns in three matchups. The Gamecocks finished 31-3 and 15-1 in the SEC regular season en route to winning the conference’s regular-season title. They’re 12-3 against Quad 1 opponents and rank third in NET ranking, ahead of No. 4 Texas. Like Texas, South Carolina brings it on both side of the floor, ranking fourth in the nation in offensive rating and seventh in defensive rating. South Carolina is deep. The Gamecocks boast five All-SEC selections in Joyce Edwards, Raven Johnson, Tessa Johnson, Ta'Niya Latson and Madina Okot. And they’re led by three-time national champion head coach Dawn Staley. Texas has the head-to-head edge against South Carolina, but outside of that matchup, the Gamecocks are as strong a challenger for UConn’s throne as any team outside of UCLA. Standing alongside South Carolina is another SEC program with championship pedigree in LSU. LSU secured a fourth-place finish in the SEC regular season (12-4) and lost to South Carolina in the tournament semifinals. The Tigers, like their SEC counterparts, are elite on both sides of the floor, ranking third in the nation in offensive rating and fourth in defensive rating. The Tigers haven’t fared as well against their top competition with a 1-4 record against Texas, LSU and Vanderbilt, which doesn’t bode well for a potential clash with UConn. And their 8-5 record against Quad 1 competition, while good, isn’t on the same level as the teams above. What LSU does boast is two All-SEC selections in Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams. Johnson’s a reigning All-American and a former NCAA champion who was a starter on LSU’s 2023 title team as a freshman. A senior and four-year starter, few players in the tournament can match her résumé. And no coach in the country is as prepared to stand toe-to-toe with Auriemma and Staley as Kim Mulkey, who’s coached four teams to the NCAA title.