The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee provided the first of three regular season top-16 rankings in seed order on Thursday evening, with UConn, Mississippi State, Louisville and Oregon earning No. 1 seeds if the season ended today.
With 54 days remaining before Selection Monday on March 12, the committee also named the No. 5 through 16 seeds in order, as Tennessee, Notre Dame, Texas, South Carolina, Baylor, Ohio State, Florida State, UCLA, Missouri, Texas A&M, Rutgers and Georgia were identified, respectively for games played through January 16.
In addition, the committee designated region assignments for each of the four No. 1 seeds. If the season ended today, UConn would be the No. 1 seed in the Albany Region, while Mississippi State would be the top seed in the Kansas City region, Louisville in the Lexington Region and Oregon in the Spokane Region.
No. 1 seeded UConn is currently the top ranked team in the latest Associated Press top-25 poll. The Huskies, 16-0, have notched 102 straight regular season victories following a 75-71 win over Texas on Jan. 15, becoming the first NCAA Division I women's basketball program to ever top the century mark in consecutive regular season wins.
Other top-seeded teams included Mississippi State, which has continued the momentum from its appearance in the 2017 national championship game, winning all 19 games this season. The No. 3 overall seed, Louisville, 19-0, just moved up to No. 2 in latest Associated Press women's basketball poll for the first time in school history. No. 4 seed Oregon, 17-2, is currently atop the Pac-12 Conference standings.
The Jan. 18 ranking is the first of three top-16 rankings that will be revealed by the committee during the 2017-18 regular season. In addition, two other top-16 reveals are scheduled this season to take place on Thursday, February 1 during halftime of the UConn-South Carolina game on ESPN (7 p.m. ET) and Monday, February 19, during ESPN2's Big Monday/Play4Kay tripleheader that includes Florida State at Duke (6 p.m.), Baylor at Texas (8 p.m. ET) and UCLA at Oregon (10 p.m. ET).
*Rankings based on games played through Tuesday night, January 16.