KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The only program to appear in every NCAA Tournament, the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team received confirmation that it had earned its 43rd consecutive postseason bid Sunday night when the bracket was revealed on ESPN.
The No. 20/19-ranked Lady Vols (22-9) received a No. 5 seed in the Birmingham 3 Regional and will play in the NCAA First & Second Rounds in Columbus, Ohio. No. 15/13-ranked Ohio State, the No. 4 seed, will serve as the host for games on Friday, March 21, and Sunday, March 23, at the Schottenstein Center.
UT will face No. 12 seed South Florida (23-10) in the first round on Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. This will mark the second meeting between these programs, with UT leading the series 1-0 after defeating the Bulls in Knoxville, 52-49, on Nov. 15, 2021.
No. 4 seed Ohio State (25-6) will meet No. 13 seed Montana State (30-3) in the other first-round contest in Columbus at 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday, with ESPN2 televising that match-up. The winners of the first-round games will face off on Sunday in the second round. Time and TV info. for that contest will be announced later.
The Lady Vols, who are 131-34 all-time in NCAA play, are the only school to appear in all 43 tournaments, winning eight national championships. They also have recorded the most games played (165) and second most victories (131) in tournament history.
South Florida, meanwhile, is making its 10th NCAA appearance. The Bulls, who are coached by Jose Fernandez, earned the American Athletic Conference’s automatic NCAA bid this season by winning the league tournament with a 69-62 victory over Rice in Fort Worth, Texas, on March 12.
USF finished third in the AAC in 2024-25 before winning its conference tourney. UT is 46-1 all-time vs. schools currently in that league, defeating Memphis (90-75) on Dec. 19 and Tulsa (102-61) on Dec. 21 earlier this season.
The Lady Vols are 34-2 in NCAA First-Round games, including 25-0 at home, 0-1 away and 9-1 at neutral sites. The only blemishes are opening-round losses to Ball State (71-55) in Bowling Green, Ky., on March 22, 2009, and to UCLA (89-77) in College Park, Md., on March 23, 2019.
Tennessee is making its first NCAA appearance under Kim Caldwell in her debut season in Knoxville. She has qualified all nine of the teams she has coached for the NCAA Tournament, including Division II Glenville State seven times, Division I Marshall once and Division I Tennessee once.
Tennessee tied for eighth in the SEC during the regular season at 8-8 and advanced to the second round of the SEC Tournament. UT has played the nation’s 18th-toughest schedule according to at least one rating service and finished 14th in the NCAA’s NET rankings
Tennessee wound up playing 16 games vs. teams in the 2025 NCAA Tournament field, including two vs. LSU (0-2) and Vanderbilt (0-2). It also had single contests vs. Alabama (W), Florida State (W), Iowa (W), Kentucky (L), Liberty (W), Mississippi State (W), Oklahoma (L), Ole Miss (W), Richmond (W), South Carolina (L), Texas (L) and UConn (W). It has an 8-8 record against those schools.
