A guide to the NCAA women’s basketball conference tournaments

The GIST: March Madness is nearly here, but first conference tournaments serve as the perfect warmup, with NCAA squads fighting for rivalry wins, trophies, and most importantly, automatic bids to The Big Dance. The women’s action gets underway today — let’s boogie right into this primer.

⚙️ How it works: Thirty-one conferences will host single-elimination tourneys from now through next Friday, leading up to Selection Sunday on March 15th (when the March Madness bracket is officially set). Of the 68 spots available, 31 will automatically go to the conference tournament winners, making these end-of-season competitions especially crucial.

• And while the top squads can count on at-large bids if they don’t win their conference, bubble teams rely on strong conference tourney performances to make their case. No pressure.

📺 What to watch: The Power Four conferences — the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 — tip off today, but you’ll have to wait until Friday to see nationally-ranked teams like No. 2 UCLA (Big Ten), No. 3 South Carolina (SEC), and No. 10 TCU (Big 12), as their regular-season performance earned them byes to their respective quarter-finals.

• In the meantime, we recommend checking out the stacked SEC, arguably the most competitive of the bunch, with teams like No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 17 Kentucky hitting the hardwood in the next 24 hours. Let the madness begin.