Women's NCAA tournament 2022 expert predictions - South Carolina, Stanford popular Final Four picks

South Carolina has been the wire-to-wire No. 1 team this season and will start the 2022 NCAA women's tournament as the betting favorite and the team with the best chance to win the title according to ESPN's Basketball Power Index. But are the Gamecocks the consensus favorite among our panel of ESPN experts?

With a strong group of challengers and coming off a loss in the SEC tournament final, South Carolina — the top seed in the Greensboro Regional that has a 29% chance to win it all, according to the BPI — knows the path to the program's second NCAA championship is not going to be an easy one. Still, the Gamecocks are motivated by last season's near-miss in the national semifinals to eventual champion Stanford, and they have a superstar post player in Aliyah Boston, just as they did with A'ja Wilson when they won the 2017 title.

Meanwhile, fellow No. 1 seed Stanford (Spokane Regional) hasn't lost since Dec. 21, when the Cardinal fell at South Carolina. After ending a 29-year title drought last year, Stanford seeks to become the fourth program (Tennessee, UConn, USC) to win at least two in a row.

The Huskies, who are looking for their first title since 2016, have made every Final Four since 2008, and after an injury-plagued season, they seem to be the healthiest they've been at just the right time. They are the No. 2 seed, but would have the advantage of being the «home» team if they advance to the nearby Bridgeport Regional. NC State is the top seed there and is trying to make the program's first Final Four since 1998.

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The other No. 1 seed is Louisville, which most recently made the Final Four in 2018 and