The 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 6, 2023. The regular season ended on March 17, 2024, with the 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament beginning on March 20 and ended with the championship game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 7.
This season was the first for the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament, a secondary national tournament operated by the NCAA as a direct parallel to the men's National Invitation Tournament.
Rule changes On May 5, 2023, the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee proposed a suite of rule changes for the 2023–24 season. These changes were approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel during its June 8 conference call: Players judged to have flopped are warned on the first offense, with a technical foul to be issued for subsequent offenses. All flop calls after the first are added to the team foul count, but not to the individual players' foul counts. Flopping and delay of game were established as a new class of technical fouls assessed to the team and not to individuals. The restricted-area arc within the free-throw lane was reduced from an arc from the center of the basket to the area directly under the basket. Defenders can now draw charges at any location other than directly under the basket. Prerecorded or live video can be transmitted to the bench area during the game, on an optional basis. This had been an experimental rule since 2021–22, but is now permanent. The shot clock resets to 20 seconds for all offensive rebounds when the original shot has touched the rim. Red and amber lights can now be placed on the backboard. Schools no longer need to apply for a waiver to allow players to use religious headwear that is safe for competition. All numbers from 0–99 are now allowed. Previously, player numbers could only include digits from 0 to 5.
Season headlines July 17, 2023 The NCAA announced the creation of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), a secondary 32-team national tournament that directly parallels the men's National Invitation Tournament. Triple Crown Sports, which owns and operates the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), responded to the WBIT announcement by reducing the WNIT field from 64 to 48 teams, effective immediately. October 4 – The Division I Council announced changes to the transfer window for all sports. In men's and women's basketball, the transfer portal now opens on the day after Selection Sunday and remains open for 45 days, down from the previous 60. October 15 – Iowa held Crossover at Kinnick, an exhibition game at the school's football home of Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes defeated DePaul 94–72 in front of a crowd of 55,646, the largest documented attendance in history for a women's basketball game. October 23 – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced that Merrimack and Sacred Heart would join from the Northeast Conference (NEC) in July 2024. October 24 – The AP released its preseason All-America team. Reigning national player of the year Caitlin Clark of Iowa was the only unanimous choice, joined by forwards Angel Reese of LSU, Cameron Brink of Stanford, and Mackenzie Holmes of Indiana; center Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech; and guard Paige Bueckers of UConn. The team had six players instead of the normal five because Holmes and Kitley tied in voting for the fifth spot. October 27 – The NCAA announced that effective immediately, the top overall seed in the Division I tournament would be placed in a regional pod playing on Friday and Sunday. This assures that team of the most possible rest time between the regional final and the Final Four, assuming that it advances to that point. November 28 – Conference USA announced that Delaware would join from the Coastal Athletic Association in 2025. December 5 – The NEC announced that Chicago State, the only Division I independent, would join the conference in July 2024. December 20 – The two schools left behind in the mass exodus from the Pac-12, Oregon State and Washington State, were reported to be nearing a deal with the West Coast Conference (WCC) for affiliate membership in multiple sports, including men's and women's basketball. The arrangement, expected to be voted on by WCC member presidents in the coming days, would run for two years (through 2025–26), during which time the so-called "Pac-2" would be eligible for WCC championships and could represent the conference in NCAA championship events. December 22 – The reported deal between the "Pac-2" and the WCC became official, with Oregon State and Washington State joining as affiliate members in all non-football sports apart from baseball through 2025–26. February 16, 2024 – During UConn's senior night ceremony, Bueckers announced that she would return for the 2024–25 season. She was eligible for the WNBA draft, in which she was projected as a lottery pick, as a redshirt junior. February 29 Clark announced she would declare for the WNBA draft. She was also eligible to return to college in 2024–25. The Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced that UMass would leave the Atlantic 10 Conference for the MAC in 2025–26. March 25 – The Southland Conference announced that UTRGV would join from the Western Athletic Conference on July 1, 2024. April 4 – The NEC announced that Mercyhurst, a member of the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, would start a transition to Division I and join the NEC on July 1, 2024. April 17 – The United States Basketball Writers Association announced that its annual award for the top D-I women's head coach would be renamed as the Geno Auriemma Award starting in 2024–25.
Milestones and records Caitlin Clark November 12 – Clark joined Sabrina Ionescu as the only Division I players to collect a triple-double in four different seasons, recording 24 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in Iowa's 94–53 blowout of Northern Iowa. Clark also surpassed Megan Gustafson as Iowa's all-time scoring leader. December 6 – Clark became the 15th Division I women's player with 3,000 career points after a 35-point performance in Iowa's 67–58 win at Iowa State. She also became the first D-I player, male or female, with 3,000 points, 750 rebounds and 750 assists. December 30 – Clark passed Ohio State's Samantha Prahalis as the career assists leader in the Big Ten Conference during Iowa's 94–71 win against Minnesota. January 31, 2024 – Clark became the all-time scoring leader in Big Ten history, passing Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell, during Iowa's 110–74 win at Northwestern. This also put Clark in second place on the Division I women's career scoring list, behind Kelsey Plum of Washington. February 11 – Clark became the sixth Division I player with 1,000 career assists, reaching the milestone during Iowa's 82–79 loss at Nebraska. February 15 – Clark surpassed Plum as the D-I career scoring leader with a long three-pointer less than 3 minutes into Iowa's home game against Michigan. She finished with a program-record 49 points, with Iowa winning 106–89. February 28 – In Iowa's 108–60 blowout of Minnesota, Clark reached three major milestones: She passed Lynette Woodard, whose career at Kansas from 1977 to 1981 predated NCAA sponsorship of women's sports, as the career scoring leader in major-college women's basketball. Clark became the all-time Division I women's leader for three-pointers in a season. Her 156 threes at this point in the season put her past Taylor Pierce, who had 154 for Idaho in the 2018–19 season. She became the second Division I women's player with 500 career three-pointers, after Taylor Robertson of Oklahoma from 2018 to 2023, and also passed Mitchell as the Big Ten career leader. March 3 – In Iowa's last regular-season game, and also the last regular-season game of her college career, Clark surpassed the career total of D-I men's scoring leader Pete Maravich shortly before halftime of the Hawkeyes' 93–83 win over Ohio State. March 8 – In the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament, Clark, who in her previous game had drawn level with Stephen Curry and Darius McGhee for the most three-pointers by any Division I player in a single season, surpassed both in Iowa's 95–62 win over Penn State, finishing the game with 164 this season. March 9 – In Iowa's 95–68 win over Michigan in the Big Ten semifinals, Clark became the first player in D-I women's history to score at least 1,000 points in two different seasons, having done so in 2022–23. She also passed Mitchell as the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten tournament history. March 25 – Clark's 32 points in Iowa's 64–54 win over West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tournament put her past Plum for the most points in a single season in D-I women's history. April 1 – In a rematch of the 2023 championship game, Clark's 41 points, including nine three-pointers, led Iowa to a 94–87 win over LSU in the Region 2 final, giving the Hawkeyes a second straight Final Four berth. In the process, Clark tied the record for most threes in an NCAA tournament game and became the D-I women's career leader in threes, passing the aforementioned Taylor Robertson. Clark also set NCAA women's tournament records for career assists and threes. April 7 – Following Clark's final college game, Iowa's 87–75 loss to South Carolina in the 2024 national championship game, she reached the following season or career milestones: Division I women's record career scoring average of 28.42 points per game, fractionally ahead of the previous record by Mississippi Valley State's Patricia Hoskins (28.38). First D-I player, male or female, with 200 three-pointers in a season (201). First D-I women's player to average 5 threes in a season (5.15), passing Pierce's previous record. Career leader in points (491) in D-I women's tournament history.
Other milestones and records January 14, 2024 – Syracuse's Dyaisha Fair became the 16th D-I women's player with 3,000 career points, reaching the milestone in the Orange's 83–82 win over Clemson. Fair played three seasons at Buffalo before transferring to Syracuse in 2022. January 21 – Tara VanDerveer became the winningest head coach in Division I history, recording her 1,203rd career win in Stanford's 65–56 win over Oregon State. The win put her ahead of retired Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski on the D-I career wins list. April 1 – In UConn's 80–73 win over USC in the Region 3 final of the NCAA tournament, USC's JuJu Watkins set a new Division I single-season freshman scoring record. Her 29 points gave her 920 for the season, passing previous leader Tina Hutchinson of San Diego State, who had set the record in 1983–84.
Conference membership changes
Nineteen schools joined new conferences, became independents, or dropped athletics.
SchoolFormer conferenceNew conference BYU WCC Big 12 Campbell Big South CAA Charlotte CUSA American Cincinnati American Big 12 Florida Atlantic CUSA American Hartford Independent CCC (D-III) Houston American Big 12 Jacksonville State ASUN CUSA Le Moyne NE-10 (D-II) NEC Liberty ASUN CUSA New Mexico State WAC CUSA North Texas CUSA American Rice CUSA American NEC None (dropped athletics) Sam Houston WAC CUSA UAB CUSA American UCF American Big 12 UTSA CUSA American Western Illinois Summit OVC
The 2023−24 season was the last for 20 Division I schools in their current conferences and at least two Division II schools in their current conferences before reclassification to Division I. It was also the last season for Chicago State as the only Division I independent.