NCAA women’s basketball Blue Bloods: Who joins UConn, Tennessee?

In female university basketball, the Uconn Huskies of Geno Auriemma are now, without a doubt, the best and most emblematic sport program. UCONN has captured 12 national Spross titles four decades of excellence, produced innumerable incredible players and was 14 four consecutive finals between 2008 and 2022.

But what about the other excellent and super successful programs in sport, such as Ladies and Tenness and Stanfords de Notre? Who else belongs to the Blue Blood Group in female university basketball?

What does define and does not define a blue blood is completely arbitrary and for debate. In male basketball, some think that Indiana still belongs even thought that Hoosiers have won a national title since 1987 and six of the last eight NCAA tournaments have been lost. Meanwhile, the UCONN male team is still overlooked Bcs? Should Clems be in that group?

We will keep those arguments for another day. This is about female university basketball.

Here are my incredible non -scientific criteria for blue blood in female rings:

With that criterion in mind, we have seven programs that currently have a blue blood status in female university basketball. For the programs that are left out, there is a way back to claim that state, just like there are ways in which some of these teams may fall. If the Trojans, Tar Heels, Tigers or Lonhorns win a second national title at some point soon, they are back in the mixture. The way back to relevance is longer for people like Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech, but we must look with love in the eighties and ninety years, and remember them as the first blue blood of sport.

Here is a closer look at our University Basketball Basketball Basketball Club, on the alphabetical list:

Kim Mulkey turned Baylor into a power, losing the NCAA tournament only in 21 seasons in Waco. Since he went to LSU, Nicki Collen has kept things in motion, going 102-36-A.739 winning percentage in his four seasons leading the Lady Bears. The program has produced three Wade trophy winners in the last 15 years, from Brittney Griner to Odyssey Sims to Nalysa Smith. They are continuously a contender in a new Big 12 look.

It has been a while since Maryland has competed for a national championship, and it is the only program here with only one title, but few programs have been more consistent than the Terps de Brenda since it touched the reins in 2010. Registration in the conference game, it has been in each madness of March since the season classified within the 10 Top 10 times AP has ended, and has captured seven large crowns of tournament. The Terps continue to be one of the consistently excellent sport programs, a standard established by former coach Chris Weller when he was accumulating trophies of the ACC tournament decades.

Like Baylor under Mulkey, Notre Dame became a national power in the duration of female basketball in the years 2000 and 2010 under the guide of Muffet McGraw. Between 1996 and 2019, an NCAA tournament was not played without Fighting Irish, a program that has produced iconic and winning players of the National Prize such as Ruth Riley, Skylar Diggins and Arike Ogunbowale. Since the runner -up for Baylor ended in 2019, the Irish have not advanced to Sweet 16. It depends on Niele Ivey defending the McGraw standard now.

One could easily argue that no program has had both South Carolina in the last decade. In addition to seven final trips and three titles, the Gamecocks were 167-9 from 2020 to 2024, which achieved the best percentage of victories in the country in that section. South Carolina was a posterior in women’s basketball for many years, and then Staley arrived in 2008 and was processed to transform the Gamecocks into one of the incredible players of all times of the death of sport as A’JA.

No NCAA tournament was played without Stanford from 1988 to 2024. That streak, which goes back to the Reagan administration, ended last season: the first year of Kate Paye at work later is for the legendary Tara Vandererveer. As Stanford and sport enter a new era, where the cardinal is at the ACC and deals with the settlement of the house and the transfer portal, its long -term status as blue blood seems to be fragile. Can the cardinal continue to win at a high level and compete for the national championships in this new era? We’ll see.

While eight national and 18 final championships are incredible impressive, Lady Vols reached all those heights when the deceased Pat SummitT was the chief coach. Since his retirement, Tennessee has fought to position himself to compete for national championships. With the rise of South Carolina and LSU, the SEC is also much more difficult. Things seemed promising last season under the chief coach of the first year Kim Caldwell, since the Lady Vols hugged their style of play, beat their rival UConn and advanced to The Sweet 16. Tennessee being a constant national content again for sport.

Many people were ready to sign UCONN’s death certificate after they left – * gasp! * – Eight years without winning a national title as parity in sport increased after the dominant career of Breeanna Stewart with the Huskies. But Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Stong returned to the Huskies at the top of the past spring in Tampa, driving Uconn to their 12th championship under Genoiemma Geno. Unlike some of its contemporary and rival adjustments of the nineties and 2000, we know that UConn is equipped to compete for more championships in this new era or female university basketball. Although Auriemma is 71 years old, Huskies show no slowdown signs.