A breakdown of the first top-16 women's basketball reveal for 2023

The first top-16 rankings from the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee have been revealed. South Carolina, Indiana, Stanford and UConn lead the rankings. Each team would hold a No. 1 seed if the season ended today, but there's plenty of basketball still to play.

First, here are the rankings:

1. South Carolina (No. 1 seed — Greenville Regional 1) 
2. Indiana (No. 1 seed — Greenville Regional 2) 
3. Stanford (No. 1 seed — Seattle Regional 3) 
4. UConn (No. 1 seed — Seattle Regional 4) 
5. LSU
6. Utah
7. Iowa 
8. Duke
9. Maryland
10. Notre Dame
11. Michigan
12. Texas
13. Virginia Tech
14. North Carolina
15. Villanova
16. Ohio State

💯 Perfect record: South Carolina is last undefeated team in DI basketball 

Top takeaways

LSU, ranked at five overall, would receive a No. 2 seed. The Tigers (23-0) are one of only two undefeated teams in all of DI basketball — conference rival South Carolina is the other and the two are set for a showdown on Sunday. UConn (21-4) and Stanford (22-3) are ranked higher despite some uncharacteristic losses. 

The Huskies lost back-to-back games for the first time since 1993. First, they fell in a close game to No. 1 South Carolina. Then they dropped a Big East game to unranked Marquette. Meanwhile, Stanford dropped two conference games to unranked Southern California and Washington. 

The quality of wins likely tipped the scales. Stanford has wins against Gonzaga, Arizona, UCLA, Utah and Colorado. UConn topped Texas, NC State, Duke, Iowa, Villanova and Florida State.

Texas at No. 12 was also notable, at least when looking at the AP poll. The Longhorns (19-6) have bounced in and out of the AP Top 25 rankings all season but have trended upward recently. Texas was ranked No. 20 in the most recent AP poll.

Overall, the Big Ten was the conference with the most teams included with five. The ACC had four; the SEC, Pac-12, and Big East had two.   

Looking ahead

These rankings are far from locked in. There’s still lots of basketball to play until the second reveal Feb. 23 and finally Selection Sunday on March 12. 

Last year the committee announced the three rankings. The second one was revealed Feb. 10 —almost a year ago from this season's first announcement. A lot changed from that reveal to the actual tournament seedings.

With the exception of the No. 1 ranked seeds, every other team fell or jumped a seed. Every No. 2 seed even dropped on selection day. Two teams tumbled to a No. 5 seed out of the top 16. 

MORE REVEALS: The top 16 committee rankings schedule, how to watch