The UConn Huskies’ return to the pinnacle of women’s college basketball last season has bettors and bookmakers alike high on them headed into the 2025-26 campaign, but the South Carolina Gamecocks and UCLA Bruins are lurking just behind, looking for opportunities to dethrone them.
UConn is the consensus favorite to win its second consecutive national championship in 2026, boasting +225 odds at ESPN BET. South Carolina checks in next at +280, with UCLA at +400 before a significant drop to Texas at +900, and another to the rest of the field, starting with LSU at +1400.
Although women’s college basketball has made significant strides toward parity in recent seasons, it’s traditionally more top-heavy than the men’s game, which helps explain the clear odds difference between the favorites tier and the rest of the field.
Bettors of the women’s game understand this dynamic, as ESPN BET reports that 87.2% of its combined national championship futures handle is backing UConn (42.1%), UCLA (30.4%) or South Carolina (14.7%). That said, ESPN BET senior director Adrian Horton notes that the Gamecocks have drawn the most bets of any team in the offseason with 33.1% of the tickets in the market.
Perhaps nothing speaks better to the top teams’ dominance in the betting sphere than their odds-on lines to make the Final Four: UConn is -150, South Carolina is -130 and UCLA is -115.
“It’s almost a sure thing that Connecticut and South Carolina get by the first round [of the NCAA tournament], first two rounds, maybe all the way to the Elite Eight because these teams, they’re going to be 40- or 50-point favorites in the first couple of games,” DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN.
Bettors are taking chances on a few teams just outside of the top three. LSU, the 2023 national champion, has garnered the third-most wagers at ESPN BET (13.9%), and BetMGM moved the Tigers from +1000 at the open to +900.
Bettors are also looking at longer shots such as Oklahoma (+2800) and Tennessee (+3300). The Lady Volunteers are a top-five team in bets or handle at ESPN BET and BetMGM, and the Sooners have taken at outsized 8% of money at the latter, making them one of the book’s largest liabilities.
Overall, the women’s college basketball betting markets have seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Going into March Madness last season, BetMGM reported a 35% year-over-year increase in handle on the sport.
“Women’s college basketball is definitely on the rise, as it has been,” Caesars college basketball trader Patrick Berbert told ESPN. “They gain a lot more attention each year and a lot of that has to do with the level of play that you’re now seeing on the women’s side of the sport. Even though Caitlin Clark has left the sport [and] JuJu Watkins is going to be out this year, the handle is still there, it’s getting better each year. So that’s a really positive thing for the sport going forward and hopefully stays that way.”