What seed is Iowa in Women's March Madness 2024? Why Caitlin Clark, Hawkeyes host first two rounds of NCAA Tournament

Jacob Camenker

What seed is Iowa in Women's March Madness 2024? Why Caitlin Clark, Hawkeyes host first two rounds of NCAA Tournament image

Iowa is one of the best teams in the country and is among the favorites to win the women's NCAA Tournament in 2024.

This is hardly a surprise. Caitlin Clark is the NCAA's all-time leading scorer, and her Stephen Curry-like scoring ability makes the Hawkeyes an offensive force.

But are the Hawkeyes the best team in the country as the tournament begins? Not quite, as South Carolina remains undefeated at this point in the 2023-24 season. That's why the NCAA rightly awarded Dawn Staley and Kamilla Cardoso's squad the No. 1 overall seed in March Madness.

Iowa isn't far behind them, though, as the second overall seed — though they may face the toughest road of any top seed.

Here's what to know about Iowa's seeding for the NCAA Tournament and why it will give them a home-court advantage in the early stages of this year's competition.

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What seed is Iowa in Women's March Madness 2024?

Iowa is one of the four No. 1 seeds in the women's NCAA Tournament for 2024. The Hawkeyes are officially the No. 2 overall seed for the tournament, with undefeated South Carolina as the No. 1 overall seed.

The Hawkeyes are officially in the Albany 2 Regional, which would put them in Albany, N.Y., for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, should they advance that far. But the format of the women's NCAA Tournament will allow Iowa to host a couple of home games to start the tournament.

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Why is Iowa playing NCAA Tournament games at home?

The women's March Madness tournament operates differently than the men's tournament when it comes to the rounds of 64 and 32.

Rather than spreading the games across neutral sites, as the men's side does, the four highest-seeded teams in each region host a mini-regional. So the top four teams in each quadrant start the tournament on their home courts.

In Iowa's case, the Hawkeyes will host the No. 8, No. 9 and No. 16 seeds in their bracket in Iowa City for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at at Iowa City's Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa will face No. 16 seed Holy Cross in the first round at 3 p.m. ET Saturday. If Clark & Co. should win, then they will face the winner of the first-round game between No. 8 West Virginia and No. 9 Princeton, which will also be played as a part of the mini-regional in Iowa City.

Once the Sweet 16 rolls around, the Hawkeyes will travel to Albany — provided that they win the mini-regional on their home court. In Albany, they would meet the winner of the Manhattan, Kansas, mini-regional hosted by No. 4 seed Kansas State.

The Final Four will be played in Cleveland by the winners of the two Albany regionals and the two Portland, Oregon, regionals. That means Iowa would play games in three different cities if they make it to the Final Four.

WOMEN'S BRACKET GUIDES: Iowa | South Carolina | LSU | USC | UConn

NCAA Tournament top seeds, regional hosts

Below is a rundown of the 16 women's teams hosting mini-regionals to start the 2024 NCAA Tournament:

Seed Team City
1 (Albany 1) South Carolina Columbia, S.C.
1 (Albany 2) Iowa Iowa City, Iowa
1 (Portland 3) USC Los Angeles, Calif. (USC)
1 (Portland 4) Texas Austin, Texas
2 (Albany 1) Notre Dame South Bend, Ind.
2 (Albany 2) UCLA Los Angeles, Calif. (UCLA)
2 (Portland 3) Stanford Stanford, Calif.
2 (Portland 4) Ohio State Columbus, Ohio
3 (Albany 1) Oregon State Corvallis, Ore.
3 (Albany 2) LSU Baton Rouge, La.
3 (Portland 3) NC State Raleigh, N.C.
3 (Portland 4) UConn Storrs, Conn.
4 (Albany 1) Indiana Bloomington, Ind.
4 (Albany 2) Kansas State Manhattan, Kan.
4 (Portland 3) Gonzaga Spokane, Wash.
4 (Portland 4) Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Va.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.