Notre Dame Women's Basketball Surprised by Unexpected Seed in NCAA Tournament

The Fighting Irish will be a three-seed in the NCAA Tournament

Feb 17, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Niele Ivey talks to guard Hannah Hidalgo (3) in the second half against the Duke Blue Devils at the Purcell Pavilion. / Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

The Notre Dame women's basketball team joined together to watch the selection show on Sunday night at Purcell Pavilion and has to be leaving a bit shocked.

Notre Dame, who was ranked No. 1 in the country as recently as mid-February, dropped three games down the stretch to close the year 26-5 overall. It understandably lost its case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament but whether they admit it or not, the team has to be rather stunned about the seed it drew Sunday night.

Notre Dame was given the No. 3 seed in Regional 3 - Birmingham. It will play Stephen F. Austin in the first round with the winner advancing to play No. 6 Michigan or No. 11 Iowa State/Princeton in the second round.

Notre Dame will host the first and second round games on its home floor with hopes of making the Sweet 16 in Birmingham. There the likely No. 2 seed awaiting the Irish would be TCU, who beat Notre Dame in the Cayman Islands Classic.

The name’s been called. Now, we handle business ☘️#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/f7ISIHBqlz

— Notre Dame Women's Basketball (@ndwbb) March 17, 2025

If Notre Dame is to make it back to the Final Four for the first time since 2019 it'll likely have to pull off a Texas Two Step in Birmingham to do it.

With TCU being the most likely team Notre Dame will face in the Sweet 16, No. 1 seed Texas would then likely await in the Elite Eight.

Notre Dame had been projected by most to be a No. 2 seed in the tournament the last few weeks, but obviously that didn't come to pass. The difference between a two and three isn't massive, but considering the Irish had wins over USC, Texas, Duke, and UConn (all No. 1 or No. 2 seeds) this year, I would have thought that'd be enough good on the resume to make up for the tough close to the year.

It wasn't and now Notre Dame's path to the Final Four gets a hair harder. Hopefully the two week break can get the Irish rested and able to find some of that spark that helped them fire out of the gate to start the season.