The Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the Big 12 Conference's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1996–97 season, the first year of conference competition but three years after the conference's official formation. As with the corresponding men's award, it is selected by the league's head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own players.
Five players have won the award more than once. Stacey Dales of Oklahoma, Nicole Ohlde of Kansas State, and NaLyssa Smith of Baylor have won twice, and Courtney Paris of Oklahoma and Brittney Griner of Baylor have won three times. Only the two three-time winners (Paris and Griner) and 2015 recipient Nina Davis of Baylor have won as sophomores. The first shared award went to Madison Booker of Texas and Skylar Vann of Oklahoma in 2024, with Booker being the first freshman to be so honored.
Three players, all from Baylor, have won a major end-of-season national award in the year that they won the Big 12 award. Griner won all three major national awards (Naismith Award, Wade Trophy, and Wooden Award) in both 2012 and 2013, and Odyssey Sims and Smith were Wade Trophy recipients, respectively in 2014 and 2021.
Key †Co-Players of the Year*Awarded a national player of the year award that same season: Wade Trophy (1977–78 to present)Naismith College Player of the Year (1982–83 to present) John R. Wooden Award (2003–04 to present)Player (X)Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Big 12 Player of the Year award at that point
Winners
SeasonPlayerSchoolPositionClassReference 1996–97 Kansas G 1997–98 Texas Tech C 1998–99 Texas Tech C 1999–2000 Oklahoma F 2000–01 Oklahoma G 2001–02 (2) Oklahoma G 2002–03 Kansas State F/C 2003–04 (2) Kansas State F/C 2004–05 Kansas State F 2005–06 Baylor F 2006–07 Oklahoma C 2007–08 (2) Oklahoma C 2008–09 (3) Oklahoma C 2009–10 Nebraska F 2010–11 Baylor C 2011–12 * (2) Baylor C 2012–13 * (3) Baylor C 2013–14 * Baylor G 2014–15 Baylor F 2015–16 Oklahoma State G 2016–17 Texas G 2017–18 Baylor C 2018–19 Iowa State G 2019–20 Baylor F 2020–21 * Baylor F 2021–22 (2) Baylor F 2022–23 Iowa State G/F 2023–24† Texas F Oklahoma F 2024–25 TCU G 2025–26 TCU G
Winners by school
School (year joined) Winners Years Baylor (1996) 10 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 Oklahoma (1996) 7 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2024† Kansas State (1996) 3 2003, 2004, 2005 Iowa State (1996) 2 2019, 2023 Texas (1996) 2 2017, 2024† TCU (2012) 2 2025, 2026 Texas Tech (1996) 2 1998, 1999 Kansas (1996) 1 1997 Nebraska (1996) 1 2010 Oklahoma State (1996) 1 2016 Arizona (2024) 0 — Arizona State (2024) 0 — BYU (2023) 0 — Cincinnati (2023) 0 — Colorado (1996/2024) 0 — Houston (2023) 0 — Missouri (1996) 0 — Texas A&M (1996) 0 — UCF (2023) 0 — Utah (2024) 0 — West Virginia (2012) 0 —
Footnotes
References