NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament: Gamecocks favored to advance

On Monday night, the women's NCAA bracket was announced, and South Carolina ended up receiving the best news it could - a number one seed, albeit in the Stanford regional. They'll face the Cal State Northridge Matadors in Seattle on Sunday afternoon at 5:30pm ET.

According to Jeff Sagarin's ratings, the Gamecocks will be favored in every game they play through the Sweet 16. In the Elite Eight, they'll run into two major issues - (1) they're not allowed to host the game due to the NCAA boycott against the state of South Carolina; and (2) Stanford is a really, really good team, and Carolina has to win at their place.

1st round opponent (in Seattle, WA)

(16) Cal-State Northridge: 24-point favorites

Possible 2nd-round opponents (in Seattle, WA)

(8) MTSU: 11-point favorites

(9) Oregon St.: 8.5-point favorites

Possible Sweet 16 opponents (in Palo Alto, CA)

(4) North Carolina: 2.5-point favorites

(5) Michigan St.: 8-point favorites

Elite Eight opponents (in Palo Alto, CA)

(2) Stanford: 4.5-point underdogs

(3) Penn St.: 8-point favorites

(6) Dayton: 14-point favorites

(7) Iowa St.: 8-point favorites

If the Gamecocks and Tar Heels match-up in the Sweet 16, it'd be a rematch of their December 18th match-up in Myrtle Beach, where the Tar Heels overcame the Gamecocks, 74-66.

The winner of the Stanford regional heads to the women's Final Four in Nashville, TN, with the semifinals to be played on April 6 and the championship game on April 8.