College basketball has March Madness and college golf has May Madness.
NCAA women’s regional play gets started on Monday with 72 teams trying to find a way to Fayetteville, Ark., and a chance to compete for a national championship later this month.
This year marks the fifth NCAA women’s golf regional that will use a four-regional format. Each regional will feature an 18-team field with top six teams advancing from each site to the finals. We have a learned a few things in the past few years and the most important being no seed is a safe bet with UCLA proving that in 2017 becoming the first top seed to not advance out of regional play in the history of NCAA women’s golf.
A closer look inside the seedings
Since the format changed to four regionals in 2015, the No. 1 seed in regional play has not won the NCAA championship. Twice a No. 4 seed has won it all which should get the attention of the No. 4 seeds this year: Auburn, UCLA, Northwestern and Oklahoma.
Past NCAA champions and their regional seed
| Year | Team |
| 2015 | No. 4 Washington |
| 2016 | No. 4 Stanford |
| 2017 | No. 2 Arizona State |
| 2018 | No. 3 Arizona |
Notes
• The host team is 8/13 in advancing out of regional play.
• Host teams within the top 6 seeds are 4/6 in advancing out of regional play.
• Host teams outside the top 6 seeds are 4/7 in advancing out of regional play.
How the seeds have fared since 2015 and the four-regional format
| Seeds | Seeds that have advanced out of regional play since 2015 |
| No. 1 | 15/16* |
| No. 2 | 15/16 |
| No. 3 | 11/16 |
| No. 4 | 12/16 |
| No. 5 | 7/16 |
| No. 6 | 5/16 |
| No. 7 | 6/16 |
| No. 8 | 6/16 |
| No. 9 | 6/16 |
| No. 10 | 5/16 |
| No. 11 | 3/16 |
| No. 12 | 2/16 |
| No. 13 | 1/16 |
| No. 14 | 2/16 |
| No. 15 | 0/16 |
| No. 16 | 0/16 |
| No. 17 | 0/16 |
| No. 18 | 0/16 |
*2017 was the only time a No. 1 seed has ever missed advancing out of regional play when UCLA placed eighth at the Lubbock Regional.
