2024/25 Women's College Basketball Outright Odds: South Carolina favored to repeat

The South Carolina Gamecocks went undefeated to win the 2023/24 Women's College Basketball National Championship, and they entered 2024/25 as the favorites to win it all once again.

Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks completed a magical 38-0 unbeaten season with an 87-75 victory over the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa Hawkeyes.

This was South Carolina’s third national title since 2017 and the team has gone 109-3 with two championships in the past three years. The Gamecocks show no signs of stopping as long as Staley is at the helm.

Below is a look at the preseason favorites to emerge victorious in April in Tampa, Florida.

2024/25 Women's College Basketball odds

South Carolina	+275
Connecticut	+400
Notre Dame	+450
USC	+475
UCLA	+600
Texas	+1000
LSU	+2500

The defending National Champion No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks (14-1) are +275 favorites to win it all once again. The Gamecocks' one loss was by 15 points to new No. 1 UCLA, which snapped South Carolina's 43-game winning streak.

Despite the fact standout forward Ashlyn Watkins (7.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.3 stelas per game) suffered a torn ACL in January, this is still a deep team, with nine other players figuring into the regular rotation and averaging between 5.2 and 11.6 points per game. Unlike their potential National Championship rivals, they do not have a go-to scorer, although that's part of coach Staley's philosophy of wanting her team to share the ball.

Second in outright market are the +400 No. 7 UConn Huskies, who are 13-2 with losses to then-No. 8 Notre Dame and then-No. 7 USC, but they do have an 11-point win over then-No. 14 North Carolina and a 13-point win over No. 18 Ole Miss on their record.

Wooden Award favorite Paige Bueckers leads the Huskies and forward Sarah Strong has been a major contributor.

Third in the odds are the No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (12-2) at +450. They beat then-No. 3 USC 74-61 in late November and then-No. 2 UConn 78-69 in mid-December.

Star guard and Wooden Award contender Hannah Hidalgo is averaging 25.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 4.0 steals in 35.9 minutes per game for head coach Niele Ivey's team.

The No. 4 USC Trojans (14-1), led by star guard JuJu Watkins, are fourth in the odds at +475 after losing to Notre Dame and more recently beating UConn and then-No. 22 Michigan.

The team is 3-1 against ranked teams this season, having also beaten then-No. 20 Ole Miss by two in the season opener. Watkins is playing at a Wooden Award level with averages of 25.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.9 blocks.

The UCLA Bruins (16-0), who beat South Carolina, are fifth in the odds at +600. Lauren Betts, a 6-foot-7 center, leads the team with 19.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. She and seven of her teammates each average at least 1.3 assists per game, and the team holds its opponents to the second-lowest field goal percentage of any Division I defense at 32.5 percent.

The Texas Longhorns (15-1) are sixth in the outright odds at +1000. They moved to the SEC before this season, they score the fourth-most points per game of any DI team with 90.8, and they have 10 players averaging at least 6.0 points.

Further back in the odds, between 25/1 and 50/1, are the LSU Tigers, NC State Wolfpack and Oklahoma Sooners.

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Odds mentioned in this article were correct at the time of writing and are subject to change.