NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championship

The NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championship, also known as the NCAA Women’s Final Four is a single-elimination tournament held annually to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women’s basketball champion. It was first established in 1982 and has been played every year since then for over three decades. The event is contested by 64 teams across four regions – East, South, Midwest and West – with each region comprising 16 teams that have won their respective conference championships or finished among the top sixteen overall seeds.

Since its inception in 1982, all of the championship games except one have been televised on either ESPN 2 or ESPNU while some regional semifinals and finals are broadcasted live on other networks such as CBS Sports Network. Since 2014–15 season onwards, it started streaming selected games via March Madness Live platform which became exclusive rightsholder from 2018–19 edition onward after signing an 11-year partnership deal with Turner Broadcasting System/CBS Corporation worth $890 million per annum making it most lucrative media rights agreement ever signed by any college sports organisation till date.

In addition to deciding a single national champion through round robin format where 32 automatic bids are allocated to regular season conference champions followed by another 32 at-large bids based upon post season performances of remaining eligible programs; it serves several purposes including promotion & support for gender equity amongst student athletes alongwith providing financial aid packages for families who couldn’t otherwise afford higher education fees especially those belonging from lower income brackets leading towards betterment of society as whole alongside generating substantial revenues associated with ticket sales & broadcasting royalties which gets reinvested back into various educational initiatives related to university athletics programmes helping them stay afloat during tough economic times when funding resources become scarce due to austerity measures imposed within academic institutions during recessionary periods like what happened worldwide during COVID pandemic induced crisis beginning 2020 fiscal year resulting almost complete cancellation of entire collegiate sporting calendar apartfrom few exceptions being made under strict precautionary guidelines issues earlieron health safety grounds thus safeguarding future generations against similar situations arising outof unforeseen events beyond human control in near distant horizon ahead

As far records go Baylor Bears (Texas) holds unique distinction winning record three consecutive titles starting 2012 through 2021 editions respectively thereby becoming only program achieving feat twice before Connecticut Huskies did unprecedented run between 2000 thru 2004 breaking UCLA Bruins previous 4 straight crowns set between 1972 up until 1975 ending streak eventually but not without contributing immensely towards development evolution popularizing game nationwide both male female categories meantime