The 2027 women’s college basketball national title picture already has a clear top tier, and it’s packed with familiar powers and rising stars. Returning All-Americans, high-end transfers and blue-chip recruiting classes have given a small group of teams the kind of talent that can carry a championship run.
South Carolina sits near the front of that pack. Joyce Edwards is the centerpiece, and she enters the season as one of the National Player of the Year favorites after emerging as one of college basketball’s dominant forwards. Dawn Staley also gets back Tessa Johnson, Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins, with both coming off injuries, while Texas transfer Jordan Lee adds another layer to the roster.
UConn has the kind of profile that always keeps it in the conversation, and Sarah Strong is the reason why. As long as she is in a Huskies uniform, they belong in the title hunt.
Strong has already become one of the best players in the country, and she’ll have plenty of help around her in KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade, Kayleigh Heckel and rising sophomore Blanca Quinonez. That mix of talent and championship pedigree is hard to match.
Texas has its own star at the top in Madison Booker, who is one of the nation’s premier scorers and another National Player of the Year candidate. The Longhorns have some production to replace after losing Rori Harmon to the draft and Lee and Aaliyah Crump to the transfer portal, so Bryanna Preston and incoming freshman Aaliah Spaight will be asked to help fill the gap. Even so, Vic Schaefer has built a roster with Final Four potential again.
LSU also belongs in the mix. Mikaylah Williams gives the Tigers one of the country’s elite guards, and Kim Mulkey has plenty of talent around her with former top recruits ZaKiyah Johnson, Grace Knox and Bella Hines.
MiLaysia Fulwiley could add another burst of playmaking if she returns as expected. For LSU, the issue has never been talent.
The question is whether it can put everything together consistently enough to reach its ceiling.
USC might have the highest ceiling of all if the pieces fall into place. A healthy JuJu Watkins changes everything for the Trojans and immediately pushes them back into championship territory.
She’ll be joined by Jazzy Davidson, the nation’s top recruit from the previous class, incoming No. 1 recruit Saniyah Hall, Kennedy Smith and highly regarded international forwards Sitaya Fagan and Sara Okeke. That’s a loaded group if it clicks.
Michigan is another team with real upside, built around the outstanding 2024 recruiting class of Olivia Olson, Syla Swords, Mila Holloway and Te'Yala Delfosse. By the time the 2027 season arrives, all four will be upperclassmen, giving Kim Barnes Arico one of the most experienced young cores in the country. If the Wolverines can find another frontcourt scorer, they have a shot at their first Final Four since 2022.
And then there’s UCLA, the defending champion that is impossible to ignore even after a major roster shakeup. The Bruins have to replace National Player of the Year Lauren Betts, along with Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez and several other key pieces from the title team. Still, Sienna Betts, Lauren’s younger sister, is positioned for a bigger role, and transfers Addy Brown and Elina Aarnisalo lead a strong group of newcomers.
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UCLA Begins Bob Chesney Era With One Huge Fall Camp Test
UCLA opens fall camp on Aug. 6 at the Wasserman Football Center, kicking off a nearly monthlong stretch that will take the Bruins through practices in both Irvine and Westwood before camp wraps Aug. 28. For Bob Chesney, it is the first training camp of his UCLA tenure, and the early weeks will be the first real chance to see how quickly his program can take shape after he arrived with a sizable group of players and staff from James Madison.
The challenge is bigger than installing a system and getting through the workload. With the season opener against Cal set for Sept. 5, UCLA is racing the calendar while trying to build chemistry, settle roles and get comfortable in a new coaching structure all at once. Fall camp usually answers a lot of questions, but for the Bruins, the more interesting one is how many of those answers Chesney can get before the team heads into September. [Read more 🡒]
UCLAs Big Ten Hopes Still Ride On One Huge If
UCLAs offseason makeover has been busy enough to make the Bruins feel like a different team, with Bob Chesney bringing over familiar pieces from James Madison and reshaping the roster around a more stable offensive line and a defense built to create more disruption. Wayne Knight is part of that exodus from Harrisonburg, and the additions around him suggest the Bruins are trying to give Nico Iamaleava and offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy a better foundation than the one they had before.
Still, the season swings on a bigger question than any single transfer or coaching tweak. UCLA can point to the upgrades and the fresh energy all it wants, but its Big Ten hopes will only take hold if Iamaleava settles into the role the staff believes he can handle and the new pieces on both sides of the ball translate into actual production when the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]