For This National Championship Is It Deja Vu for Baylor?

March madness has officially arrived. In a few hours we will know the outcome of where the field of 64 will begin their quest for the coveted National Championship. And for Baylor, they have been here before. We'll get to that a little later. But before we fill in our brackets and make our predictions for the Final Four let's take a look at the history of the women's tournament through "statistical analysis". That sounded mathematical and quite boring but trust me this analysis is of the "fun" kind. Let's start with the basics, you may know some of these so bear with me.

Battle of The Sexes
*The NCAA women's tournament began crowning a champion in 1982 compared to it's male counterpart in 1939.
*Female coaches have dominated the championship. Only Geno Auriemma and Leon Barmore were able to enter into this girl's club.

Win, Lose, or Draw
*There have been six schools entering the tournament undefeated.
-Texas (1986) went all the way winning the championship.
-Louisiana Tech in 1990, lost in the final four.
-Vermont (1992,1993) lost both times in the first round.
-UCONN (1995,1997,2002,2009,2010) won the title 4 of the 5 times.
-Liberty and Tennessee (1998) were both undefeated going into the tourney. Liberty lost in the opening round and Tennessee won the title that year.
*There has been two overtime games in the championship game.
Tennessee/Virginia (1991) and Maryland/Duke (2006)

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better
*Louisiana Tech (1982, 1988) and Old Dominion (1985) only mid-major schools to win the title.
*Furthest Historically Black College to advance in the tournament was Cheyney State which reached the championship game in 1982.
*Only one Big 10 school has won the title game, Purdue (1999).
*Tennessee holds the record for most championships by a school (8) and most final four appearances (18).
*In it's 29 year history the SEC has had a team in the final four 25 of 29 times. From 2004-2008 LSU made the final four consecutively but never made the championship game.
*UCONN is a perfect 7-0 in the title game.
*Four times has the championship been played by teams from the same conference.
1989 SEC Tennessee/Auburn
1996 SEC Tennessee/Georgia
2006 ACC Maryland/Duke
2009 Big East UCONN/Louisville

West Coast Bias
*Only two west coast schools have won the title game.
USC (1983,1984) and Stanford (1990,1992) with each winning once in Los Angeles.
*Only other west coast school to participate in a final four, Long Beach State (1987,1988)

Reap What You Sow
*Lowest seed ever to win the championship game, #3 North Carolina (1994).
*Lowest seed to advance to the final four, #9 Arkansas (1998)
*#16 Harvard knocked off #1 Stanford in the first round. First time male or female tourney history a #16 seed defeated a #1.

It's Not That Easy Being Green
*There has never been a purple jersey playing for the title game,...sorry LSU.
*A team with the color combination of red/white has been in the final four 24 of 29 times. Make that 26 times if you allow red variations maroon or burgundy.
*No team wearing a green jersey has won the championship. Although Notre Dame and Baylor have green in their school colors, Notre Dame wore their gold uniform in 2001 and Baylor wore their black jersey in 2005.

If History Repeats Itself
*Twice the championship has been played on April 5th. Stanford (1992) and Baylor (2005).
Now why is this Deja Vu for Baylor you ask?
**April 5, 2005 (odd year) Baylor wins the national championship playing in the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, IN. April 5, 2011 (odd year) the NCAA championship game is being played in Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. Baylor is favored to make the final four.

The Lady Bears better pack their black jersey!

The NCAA womens tournament begins first and second rounds March 19-22 with regionals March 26-29. Look for the final four April 3rd and the championship April 5th. ESPN again will cover all games, check your local listings.

You can begin filling out your brackets Monday night, March 14th around 7pm ET,...I know I will.