The men's and women's NCAA Tournaments are largely structured the same -- Why wouldn't they be? The format simply works, drawing in massive audiences each March.
Both tournaments include 68 teams, with the field whittled down to 64 by the end of the First Four. Each tournament is single-elimination and ends with a single-location Final Four and national championship game over three days.
As the women's tournament gets started, however, you might notice a few key differences in the way games are played, as well as where they are played.
Here's a guide to the differences between the men's and women's NCAA Tournament.
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Men's vs. women's NCAA Tournament differences
Quarters
Arguably the most noticeable difference? Quarters! Quarters are unheard of in men's college basketball, where games are comprised of two 20-minute halves. On the women's side, each game is made up of four 10-minute quarters.
Both men's and women's NCAA Tournament games are 40 minutes long, but quarters allow the game flow to operate differently. For example, there is a media timeout at the first stoppage under five minutes in each quarter in the women's game. The men's side has four media timeouts in each half, spread four minutes apart.
While eight media timeouts is much more than four, the breaks between the first and second quarter and third and fourth quarter effectively serve as a media timeout during a women's tournament game.
Host sites
Host sites for the men's NCAA Tournament have nothing to do with which teams are playing. While a team might be placed in a preferred location if it's seeded highly enough, the host locations are set well before the bracket is put together.
The women's tournament operates a bit differently. Each team seeded on the top four lines (16 total teams) hosts first- and second-round games.
For example, No. 1 overall seed South Carolina hosts not only its first game vs. No. 16 Presbyterian but also the region's No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup between North Carolina and Michigan State. If the Gamecocks win, they will then host the winner of the latter game in their own building.
There are 16 total sites for the first two rounds of the women's NCAA Tournament, whereas the first weekend of the men's tournament is played at only eight sites.
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Basketball size
This difference is less notable unless you're actually standing next to the court. The women's tournament is played with a 28.5-inch basketball rather than the 29.5-inch basketball that the men's tournament is played with. The ball also must be a maximum weight of 22 ounces for men and 20 ounces for women.
Backcourt violations
You won't see any players or teams penalized for taking more than 10 seconds to get the ball over mid-court. While that's the limitation in the men's game, the women's game allows teams to use up as much time as they want when bringing the ball up the floor.
