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Mechelle Voepel 5y

Baylor takes No. 1 overall seed in initial NCAA top 16 rankings

Women's College Basketball, Baylor Lady Bears, Louisville Cardinals, Oregon Ducks, Mississippi State Bulldogs, UConn Huskies, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Stanford Cardinal, NC State Wolfpack, Marquette Golden Eagles, Iowa Hawkeyes, Maryland Terrapins, Oregon State Beavers, South Carolina Gamecocks, Gonzaga Bulldogs, Iowa State Cyclones, Miami Hurricanes

Baylor is the top overall seed in the NCAA women's basketball selection committee's first reveal of the top 16 overall seeds for the NCAA tournament. The Lady Bears are joined in order by fellow No. 1 seeds Louisville, Oregon and Mississippi State, the NCAA announced Monday. 

The No. 2 seeds are UConn, defending NCAA champion Notre Dame, Stanford and NC State. The No. 3 seeds are Marquette, Iowa, Maryland and Oregon State. And the No. 4 seeds are South Carolina, Gonzaga, Iowa State and Miami.

Rhonda Lundin Bennett, chair of the Division I Women's Basketball Committee, said there were five or six teams in consideration for the top line of the poll.

"This is just a snapshot in time and there are about 1,000 games left to be played," Bennett said. 

The committee moved a couple of the second-seeded teams around to adhere to their principle and procedures that are intended to make sure "each of the first four teams selected from a conference shall be placed in different regions if they are seeded on the first four lines."

Defending NCAA champion Notre Dame was placed with the Lady Bears in the Greensboro Regional. The committee's regional assignments are:

Albany, New York: Mississippi State, UConn, Oregon State, Miami

Portland, Oregon: Oregon, NC State, Iowa, Gonzaga

Greensboro, North Carolina: Baylor, Notre Dame, Maryland, South Carolina

Chicago: Louisville, Stanford, Marquette, Iowa State

The ACC leads the way among conferences with four of the top 16. Three are from the Pac-12 and two each from the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.

Teams that are in the top 16 overall get to host first- and second-round NCAA tournament games unless there is a scheduling conflict with their arena. South Carolina has a conflict because Colonial Life Arena is one of the NCAA men tournament's first- and second-round sites.

The South Carolina women are still hopeful that if they do indeed host, they can rent another arena within driving distance of Columbia, South Carolina, provided the NCAA approves it. According to a report by David Cloninger of the Post and Courier newspaper, that alternate site could be an arena in North Carolina.

The committee's second and final reveal this season is March 4. The 2019 women's NCAA tournament bracket will be unveiled on Selection Monday (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET), which is March 18.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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