The 2005 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 19, 2005, and concluded on April 5, 2005, when Baylor was crowned as the new national champion. The Final Four was held for the first (and last) time at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 3 and 5, 2005, and was hosted by Butler University and the Horizon League. Future Final Fours will be held every five years in Indianapolis, the NCAA's home city, will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium, one block south of the Indiana Convention Center, where the RCA Dome is located. Baylor, coached by Kim Mulkey-Robertson, defeated Michigan State, coached by Joanne P. McCallie, 84–62 in the championship game. Baylor's Sophia Young was named Most Outstanding Player. For the first time, taking a page from the Men's Tournament, the regionals were named after the city they were played in, rather than the geographical location (East, Mideast, Midwest and West), and the "pod" system adopted by the Men's Tournament was used.

Notable events In three of the four regions, the number one seed in the region advanced to the Final Four. In the Chattanooga Regional, 13th seeded Liberty upset both Penn State and DePaul to advance to the regional semifinal, but there encountered the top seed LSU, who won and went on to defeat Duke to advance to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

In the Philadelphia Regional, Tennessee faced Purdue in the second round. The victory represented the 880th win for coach Pat Summitt, moving her beyond Dean Smith 879 career victories, to claim the top spot in college basketball career victories. Rutgers upset Ohio State to advance to the regional final, but top seeded Tennessee won to advance. In the Kansas City Regional, top seeded Michigan State defeated the 2 seed Stanford to advance. The single exception was in the Tempe Regional, where second seeded Baylor upset North Carolina to earn a spot at the Final Four.

In one semifinal, Baylor faced LSU. Five years earlier, Baylor had won just seven games against twenty losses, and had never been to an NCAA Tournament. Then they hired Kim Mulkey, who coached the team to an NCAA berth in her first year, and now was coaching a team in the Final Four. However, thirteen minutes into the game, LSU led 24–9. The two teams had played before, in the opening regular season game for Baylor. In that game the Lady Bears found themselves down by 19 points at halftime. They almost closed the gap, but ended up with a one-point loss. This time, they found themselves down again by a large margin. Mulkey called a timeout, and the team responded with six straight points. Not long after, a three-pointer cut the lead to six, and they continued to chip away, reaching the halftime with the score tied at 28. After the break, LSU retook the lead, and were up by four points with just over eight minutes to play, but would go scoreless for five minutes. Baylor retook the lead, and held on to win 68–57 to advance to the championship game. Ironically, 16 years later, Kim Mulkey would depart Baylor to become the head coach at LSU.

In the second semifinal, Tennessee faced Michigan State, who were playing in their first Final Four. The Lady Vols had a six-point lead at halftime, but extended the lead to 16 points with fourteen and a half minutes to go. Although the crowd had watched Baylor recover from a 15-point deficit earlier in the evening, that had occurred with 28 minutes to play. This time, the deficit was 16 and just over 14 minutes left. The Spartans cut into the lead, and with a minute to go had tied the game. At that point Kristin Haynie, who had only scored two points in the game, stole the ball and ran almost the length of the floor to score a layup and take the lead. Tennessee then missed three shots and Michigan State scored the final points of the game to tie the record for the largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history.

The final matched up two nontraditional names in women's basketball. Michigan State had never before advanced beyond the second round, and Baylor had but once, and was only in their fourth NCAA tournament ever. Baylor opened up a 19-point lead early, but no lead seemed safe after 15 point and 16 point comebacks in the semifinals. The lead ballooned to 23, then Michigan State attempted a comeback, but the Lady Bears were too strong, and went on to win their first national championship 84–62.

Locations

So as to decrease the number of games played on a competing team's home court, the subregionals were held at eight locations, rather than 16, for the first time. Furthermore, following the lead of the men's tournament in recent years, the 2005 women's tournament used the "pod system", keeping most teams at or close to the home cities, and were held from March 19 to 22 at these locations: March 19 and 21: Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Seattle, Washington (Host: University of Washington) Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas (Host: University of Texas at Austin and Texas Tech University) Save Mart Center, Fresno, California (Host: Fresno State University) Williams Arena, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Host: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)

March 20 and 22: Comcast Center, College Park, Maryland (Host: University of Maryland, College Park) Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Connecticut (Host: University of Connecticut) Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee)

The regionals were held from March 26 to 29 in the following regions. The regionals, for the first time, were named after the city they were played in instead of a direction (East, South, Midwest, West).

March 26 and 28: Chattanooga Regional, McKenzie Arena, Chattanooga, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) Tempe Regional, Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)

March 27 and 29: Kansas City Regional, Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, Missouri (Host: University of Missouri–Kansas City) Philadelphia Regional, Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Host: Temple University)

The regional winners advanced to the Final Four, held on April 3 and 5, 2005 at the RCA Dome, in Indianapolis, Indiana, hosted by both Butler University and the Horizon League.

Tournament records Margin overcome—Michigan State overcame a 16-point deficit, trailing 47–31, with 16:03 remaining, but rallied to beat Tennessee 68–64. The 16 point margin overcome is the largest in an NCAA semifinal game.

Qualifying teams - automatic Sixty-four teams were selected to participate in the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Thirty-one conferences were eligible for an automatic bid to the 2005 NCAA tournament.

Automatic Bids     Record   Qualifying School Conference Regular Season Conference Seed Alcorn State SWAC 16 Baylor Big 12 Conference 2 Bowling Green MAC 13 Canisius MAAC 15 Connecticut Big East 3 Coppin State MEAC 16 Dartmouth Ivy League 14 Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley Conference 12 Green Bay Horizon League 10 Hartford America East 14 Holy Cross Patriot League 15 Illinois State Missouri Valley Conference 15 Liberty Big South Conference 13 Michigan State Big Ten 1 Middle Tennessee State Sun Belt Conference 12 Montana Big Sky Conference 12 New Mexico Mountain West 8 North Carolina ACC 1 Old Dominion Colonial 11 Oral Roberts Mid-Continent 14 Rice WAC 11 Santa Clara West Coast Conference 15 St. Francis (PA) Northeast Conference 14 Stanford Pac-10 2 Stetson Atlantic Sun Conference 16 TCU Conference USA 7 Temple Atlantic 10 6 Tennessee SEC 1 UT-Arlington Southland 13 UC-Santa Barbara Big West Conference 13 Western Carolina Southern Conference 16

Qualifying teams - at-large Thirty-three additional teams were selected to complete the sixty-four invitations.

At-large Bids     Record   Qualifying School Conference Regular Season Conference Seed Arizona Pacific-10 9 Arizona State Pacific-10 5 Boston College Big East 7 DePaul Conference USA 5 Duke Atlantic Coast 2 Florida State Atlantic Coast 6 George Washington Atlantic 10 9 Georgia Southeastern 6 Houston Conference USA 10 Iowa State Big 12 7 Kansas State Big 12 4 Louisiana Tech Western Athletic 11 Louisville Conference USA 9 LSU Southeastern 1 Maryland Atlantic Coast 7 Minnesota Big Ten 3 Ole Miss Southeastern 8 N.C. State Atlantic Coast 5 Notre Dame Big East 4 Ohio State Big Ten 2 Oklahoma Big 12 8 Oregon Pacific-10 10 Penn State Big Ten 4 Purdue Big Ten 9 Richmond Atlantic 10 11 Rutgers Big East 3 USC Pacific-10 8 Texas Big 12 3 Texas Tech Big 12 4 Utah Mountain West 10 Vanderbilt Southeastern 5 Virginia Atlantic Coast 6 Virginia Tech Atlantic Coast 12

Tournament seeds +Chattanooga Regional +McKenzie Arena, Chattanooga, TennesseeSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1LSUSEC29–2At-large2DukeACC28–4At-large3TexasBig 1221–8At-large4Penn StateBig Ten19–10At-large5DePaulConference USA25–4At-large6GeorgiaSEC22–9At-large7Boston CollegeBig East19–9At-large8OklahomaBig 1217–12At-large9ArizonaPac-1019–11At-large10HoustonConference USA21–8At-large11RiceWAC24–8Automatic12Virginia TechACC17–11At-large13LibertyBig South24–6Automatic14Oral RobertsMid-Continent22–8Automatic15CanisiusMAAC21–9Automatic16StetsonAtlantic Sun17–13Automatic+Tempe Regional +Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, ArizonaSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1North CarolinaACC28–4Automatic2BaylorBig 1227–3Automatic3MinnesotaBig Ten24–7At-large4Notre DameBig East26–5At-large5Arizona StatePac-1021–9At-large6VirginiaACC20–10At-large7TCUConference USA23–9Automatic8Ole MissSEC19–10At-large9George WashingtonAtlantic 1022–8At-large10OregonPac-1020–9At-large11Old DominionColonial22–8Automatic12Eastern KentuckyOhio Valley23–8Automatic13UC Santa BarbaraBig West21–8Automatic14Saint FrancisNortheast21–9Automatic15Illinois StateMissouri Valley13–17Automatic16Coppin StateMEAC23–7Automatic+Philadelphia Regional +Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1TennesseeSEC26–4Automatic2Ohio StateBig Ten29–3At-large3RutgersBig East25–6At-large4Texas TechBig 1222–7At-large5NC StateACC21–7At-large6TempleAtlantic 1027–3Automatic7MarylandACC21–9At-large8New MexicoMountain West26–4Automatic9PurdueBig Ten16–12At-large10Green BayHorizon League27–3Automatic11Louisiana TechWAC20–9At-large12Middle TennesseeSun Belt23–7Automatic13UT ArlingtonSouthland21–9Automatic14HartfordAmerica East22–8Automatic15Holy CrossPatriot League20–10Automatic16Western CarolinaSouthern18–13Automatic+Kansas City Regional +Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, MissouriSeedSchoolConferenceRecordBerth type1Michigan StateBig Ten28–3Automatic2StanfordPac-1029–2Automatic3ConnecticutBig East23–7Automatic4Kansas StateBig 1223–7At-large5VanderbiltSEC22–7At-large6Florida StateACC23–7At-large7Iowa StateBig 1223–6At-large8USCPac-1019–10At-large9LouisvilleConference USA22–8At-large10UtahMountain West25–7At-large11RichmondAtlantic 1023–7At-large12MontanaBig Sky22–7Automatic13Bowling GreenMAC23–7Automatic14DartmouthIvy League17–10Automatic15Santa ClaraWest Coast17–13Automatic16Alcorn StateSWAC21–8Automatic

Bids by conference Thirty-one conferences earned an automatic bid. In twenty-one cases, the automatic bid was the only representative from the conference. Thirty-three additional at-large teams were selected from ten of the conferences.

Bids Conference Teams 7

Atlantic Coast

North Carolina, Duke, Florida State, Maryland, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech 6

Big 12

Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech 5

Big Ten

Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue 5

Pacific-10

Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Southern California 5

Southeastern

Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt 4

Big East

Connecticut, Boston College, Notre Dame, Rutgers 4

Conference USA

TCU, DePaul, Houston, Louisville 3

Atlantic 10

Temple, George Washington, Richmond 2

Mountain West

New Mexico, Utah 2

Western Athletic