The 2015 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was played between March and April 2015, with the Final Four played April 5 & 7. The regional locations, after a one-year experiment allowing tournament teams to host, returned to four neutral sites: Oklahoma City, Spokane, Greensboro and Albany.[1] The subregionals were played 20–23 March, while the regionals were played 27–30 March. This represented a change; in the past, the rounds were played starting on a Saturday and ending on a Tuesday. In 2015, the opening rounds and regionals (but not the Final Four) were played starting on a Friday and ending on a Monday.[2][3][4] The Final Four was played at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.[5] For only the third time in history, all four of the number one seeds made it to the Final Four.
Tennessee continued its record streak of making every NCAA women's basketball tournament at 34 consecutive appearances. UConn also continued its record streak of eight consecutive Final Four appearances.
Pending any changes to the format, a total of 64 teams will enter the 2016 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 36 bids are "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. The tournament is split into four regional tournaments, and each regional has teams seeded from 1 to 16, with the committee ostensibly making every region as comparable to the others as possible.[citation needed] The top-seeded team in each region plays the #16 team, the #2 team plays the #15, etc. (meaning where the two seeds add up to 17, that team will be assigned to play another).
The basis for the subregionals returned to the approach used between 1982 and 2002; the top sixteen teams, as chosen in the bracket selection process, hosted the first two rounds on campus.
The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 64.
The subregionals were played from 20–23 March 2015.[6]
The basis for the subregionals returned to the approach used between 1982 and 2002; the top sixteen teams, as chosen in the bracket selection process, hosted the first two rounds on campus.[7] The following sites were selected to host each round of the 2015 tournament:[8]
First and Second Rounds (Subregionals)
Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)
National semifinals and championship (Final Four and championship)
This was the second time that Tampa had hosted a Women's Final Four Basketball tournament; the prior time was in 2008.
The following teams automatically qualified for the 2015 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament (except for the Ivy League, whose regular-season champion received the automatic bid).
* – Denotes overtime period
Unless otherwise noted, all times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04).
Breanna Stewart Most Outstanding Player (Connecticut)
Kaleena Mosquera-Lewis (Connecticut)
Moriah Jefferson (Connecticut)
Andrea Hoover (Dayton)
Ally Malott (Dayton)
During the Final Four round, regardless of the seeds of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region plays against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region, and the champion of the second overall top seed's region plays against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region. The committee placed the four No. 1 seeded teams 1 through 4 in each of the four regions, thus determining the Final Four semifinals pairings.
ESPN had US television rights to all games during the tournament.[95] For the first and second round, ESPN aired select games nationally on ESPN, ESPNU, or ESPNews. All other games aired regionally on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN3 and were streamed online via WatchESPN. Most of the nation got whip-a-round coverage during this time, which allowed ESPN to rotate between the games and focus the nation on the one that had the closest score. The regional semifinals were split between ESPN and ESPN2, and ESPN aired the regional finals, national semifinals, and championship match. Coverage began with the selection show on Monday, March 12, 2015.[96]
First & Second Rounds Friday/Sunday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Friday/Sunday
Final Four
First & Second Rounds Saturday/Monday
Sweet Sixteen & Elite Eight Saturday/Monday
Championship
Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.[97][98] Teams participating in the Regional Finals, Final Four, and championship were allowed to have their own local broadcasts, but they were not allowed to stream those broadcasts online.
Regional Finals Sunday
Regional Finals Monday