1978 AIAW National Large College Basketball Championship

The 1978 AIAW National Large College Basketball Championship was held on March 17–25, 1978. Sixteen teams were invited, and the UCLA Bruins led by Ann Meyers were crowned national champions.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} In the national championship game, the Bruins defeated the Maryland Terrapins 90–74, in front of a record crowd of 9,351 at Pauley Pavilion.^[9][10][11]

DatesMarch 17, 1978–March 25, 1978

AdministratorAssociation for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women

HostUniversity of California, Los Angeles

VenueLos Angeles, California

Quick facts Tournament information, Dates ...

1978 AIAW National Large College Basketball Championship

Tournament information
Dates	March 17, 1978–March 25, 1978
Administrator	Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women
Host	University of California, Los Angeles
Venue	Los Angeles, California
Participants	16
Final positions
Champions	UCLA (1st title)
Runner-up	Maryland
Tournament statistics
Matches played	20
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This was the first AIAW Tournament to divide the first two rounds into four regional sites, and also the first to be held over the course of two weekends. Th previous tournament in 1977 was held as a sixteen-team single-site event over in one week in Minneapolis.^[12] The host site for the Final Four was UCLA in Los Angeles. The championship game was televised nationally for the first time, by NBC.^[13] The 1978 national championship represented a shift from the smaller schools to larger schools with larger athletic budgets such as UCLA and Maryland^[14] It was pivotal in terms of hosting, organization, format, television rights, and attendance.^[15][16] The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, which was first played at the end of the 1981-82 women's basketball season, would prevail as the season-completing tournament for women's college basketball.^[17] Ann Meyers being the first woman to receive a four-year athletic scholarship is regarded as one of the defining moments in the history of women's sports.^[18]