The SEC women’s basketball tournament bracket officially its top overall seed.
But it didn’t happen ordinarily.
In what is a rarity in women’s college basketball (and college athletics in general), No. 6 South Carolina was named the No. 1 seed in this week’s SEC tournament after SEC commissioner Greg Sankey performed a coin flip to break a tie during halftime of LSU-Ole Miss on the SEC Network.
No. 1 Texas will be the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. It’s the fourth straight year that South Carolina will be the top seed in the conference tournament.
‘It was kind of exciting,’ South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said after the coin flip per The Greenville News’ Lulu Kesin. ‘The build up was good. I know when you’re part of the equation, it doesn’t feel good to have your fate in a coin toss and I didn’t know that eight other sports use a coin flip. That was news to me, I feel a little better about it now.’
With wins over Kentucky and Florida, respectively, on Sunday, the Gamecocks and Longhorns were named co-SEC regular season champions at 15-1 in conference play. It is South Carolina’s ninth regular season title under Dawn Staley, while it is Texas’ first as the Longhorns joined the SEC from the Big 12 over the offseason.
The 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament will start on Wednesday, March 5 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, with four first-round games. The Gamecocks enter this year’s tournament looking to defend their back-to-back SEC Tournament titles, and win their fifth conference tournament title in the last six years.
Entering the SEC Tournament, Texas is projected as No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament while South Carolina is a projected No. 2 seed per the second partial bracket reveal by the selection committee.
Here’s what you need to know why a coin flip was needed to determine the No. 1 seed in the 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament and a more:
Why will SEC seeding between South Carolina, Texas be determined by a coin flip
With South Carolina and Texas both going 4-0 in the final week of the regular season and being co-regular season champions, there was a need for a coin toss by Sankey to break the tie for who would be the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament.
‘I think we should’ve thought a little bit more ahead of this situation knowing that we were bringing a Texas and a Oklahoma into the SEC. That’s just me, though,’ Staley said earlier this week in a media availability.
Here are the three tiebreakers that were used to get to the tie breaker, per the SEC and the the Greenville News, which is part of the USA TODAY Network:
A) Win-loss results of head-to-head competition between the two teams
B) Win-loss record of the two teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary)
C) Coin flip by the commissioner
Scenarios A and B were both eliminated heading into the final week of the regular season, as South Carolina and Texas split the head-to-head regular season series against each other. The Gamecocks and Longhorns both won at their home arena.
SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament bracket seeding
Here’s an updated look at the seeding positions for the 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament after Sunday’s coin toss tiebreaker result with the what the bracket looked like heading into Sunday:
South Carolina
Texas
LSU
Kentucky
Oklahoma
Alabama
Ole Miss
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Mississippi State
Florida
Georgia
Auburn
Missouri
Texas A&M
Arkansas
Note: This is not a finalized bracket as several games in the SEC are still going on, including LSU and Ole Miss.
When is the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament?
Dates: Wednesday, March 5 through Sunday, March 9
Location: Bon Secours Wellness Arena (Greenville, South Carolina)
The 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament will take place across Wednesday, March 5 through Sunday, March 9 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.