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The men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments are largely structured the same way. Why wouldn’t they be? The format simply works, attracting massive audiences every March.

Both tournaments featured 68 teams, with the field reduced to 64 by the end of the first four. Each tournament is single-elimination and culminates with a Final Four at a single venue and a national championship game over three days.

However, as the women’s tournament gets underway, you may notice some key differences in how matches are played, as well as where they take place.

Here’s a guide to the differences between the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament.

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Men vs. Women’s NCAA Tournament Differences

Neighborhoods

Perhaps the most notable difference? Neighborhoods! Quarters are unheard of in men’s college basketball, where games consist of two 20-minute halves. For women, each match is made up of four 10-minute quarters.

The men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament games are 40 minutes long, but the quarters allow the flow of the game to work differently. For example, there is a media timeout at the first stoppage of less than five minutes of each quarter in the women’s game. The men’s team has four media timeouts in each half, spaced four minutes apart.

While eight media timeouts are much greater than four, the breaks between the first and second quarters and the third and fourth quarters effectively serve as a media timeout during a women’s tournament game.

Host sites

The host sites for the NCAA men’s tournament have nothing to do with the teams that play. Although a team can be placed in a prime slot if it is ranked high enough, host slots are defined well before the draw is made.

The women’s tournament works a little differently. Each team ranked in the top four lines (16 teams total) hosts the first and second round matches.

For example, No. No. 1 seed South Carolina not only hosts its first game against. No. 16 Presbyterian but also No. 8 against No. 9 matchups between North Carolina and Michigan State. If the Gamecocks win, they will then host the winner of this final game in their own building.

There are 16 sites total for the first two rounds of the women’s NCAA tournament, while the first weekend of the men’s tournament is played at just eight sites.

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Basketball size

This difference is less noticeable unless you are actually next to the field. The women’s tournament is played with a 28.5 inch basketball rather than the 29.5 inch basketball that the men’s tournament is played with. The ball must also weigh a maximum of 22 ounces for men and 20 ounces for women.

Backcourt Violations

You won’t see any player or team penalized for taking more than 10 seconds to pass the ball through the middle of the field. Although this is the limit of the men’s game, the women’s game allows teams to use as much time as they want to move the ball up.