The 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 3, 2025. The regular season ended on March 15, 2026. The 2026 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began with the first four on March 18 and ended with the championship game on April 5, at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Rule changes
Season headlines May 6 – New Haven announced that it had accepted an invite to join the Northeast Conference effective July 1, 2025, and begin reclassification from NCAA Division II to be eligible for postseason play in 2028–29. June 4 – Utah Valley announced that it would join the Big West Conference from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in 2026–27. June 18 – Sacramento State announced it would join the Big West Conference from the Big Sky Conference in 2026–27. June 25 – Southern Utah and Utah Tech announced that they would both join the Big Sky Conference from the WAC in 2026–27. June 26 – The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) announced a strategic alliance under which the WAC will rebrand as the United Athletic Conference (UAC) beginning with the 2026–27 academic year. The rebranding will allow the continuing conference to retain the WAC’s automatic qualification status for NCAA championship events, including basketball. Under the announced alignment: The rebranded all-sports UAC will include the three remaining WAC institutions—Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, and non-football UT Arlington. The five ASUN members that play football in the UAC—Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, and West Georgia—will also join the all-sports UAC. Going forward, the ASUN will retain its seven current members that do not play scholarship FCS football. Five of these schools do not sponsor football at all; Stetson plays non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer Football League, while Bellarmine plays the non-NCAA variant of sprint football. June 30 – Texas State announced that it would join the Pac-12 Conference from the Sun Belt Conference in 2026–27, bringing the Pac-12 to the 8-member minimum threshold required to maintain its Division I FBS status. July 15 – Louisiana Tech announced that it would replace Texas State in the Sun Belt Conference from Conference USA. Louisiana Tech will join the Sun Belt no later than July 1, 2027. July 21 – The American Athletic Conference announced it had dropped the word "Athletic" from its name, becoming simply the American Conference. The conference also retired the "AAC" initialism, which had been used more by media than by the conference itself; the official short form is now simply the word "American". August 13 – Tennessee Tech announced it would join the Southern Conference from the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) in 2026–27. September 3 – UC San Diego announced it would join the West Coast Conference (WCC) from the Big West Conference in 2027–28. September 24 – The Loyola Phoenix, the student newspaper of Loyola University Chicago, announced that 106-year-old Sister Jean, who began her tenure at Loyola in 1991, and had been chaplain of the men's basketball team since 1994, retired for health reasons. October 2 – The Northeast Conference adopted its longstanding abbreviation of NEC as its official name. October 9 – Loyola Chicago announced that Sister Jean had died at the age of 106. October 10 – Little Rock announced that it would join the United Athletic Conference (UAC) from the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) in 2026–27. October 21 – The Associated Press named its preseason All-America team. The leading vote-getters were UCLA center Lauren Betts and Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo. The other honorees were Texas forward Madison Booker, UConn forward Sarah Strong, and South Carolina guard Ta'Niya Latson. October 31 – The WCC announced that Denver would join from the Summit League in 2026–27. January 14, 2026 – At the annual NCAA convention, the Division I Cabinet approved changes to the transfer portal for several sports, including men's and women's basketball. Effective immediately: A single 15-day portal was adopted for all D-I teams, opening the day after the final game of the NCAA tournament. For players on teams undergoing a head coaching change, the portal will open for 15 days, starting 5 days after a new head coach is hired or publicly announced. If 30 days pass without the announcement of a new head coach, the portal will open for those players on the 31st day, as long as it falls after the championship game. This additional window is available only after the start of the standard portal. Mid-year transfers will not be eligible to play for their new school during that season if they were enrolled at another NCAA member institution during the first academic term, regardless of whether or not they competed. March 5 – After several months of failed negotiations between Louisiana Tech and CUSA over the school's terms of departure, the University of Louisiana System, of which Tech is a member, filed suit against CUSA on Tech's behalf in Lincoln Parish. The suit sought to allow Tech to join the SBC on the school's desired July 2026 schedule. April 2 – West Florida announced that it accepted an invitation to join the ASUN from the Gulf South effective July 1, 2026, and begin reclassification from NCAA Division II to be eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play in 2028–29.
Milestones and records November 12 – Hannah Hidalgo set a single-game Division I record with 16 steals, as well as a school record of 44 points, in Notre Dame's 85–58 win over Akron. December 3 – Mikayla Blakes became the 9th player to score 1,000 career points in 42 or fewer games after dropping 28 points in Vanderbilt's 81–68 win over Virginia. January 22 – Hannah Hidalgo became the fastest women's basketball player in ACC history to reach 2,000 points, doing so in 86 games (the previous record was 89), after scoring 27 points in Notre Dame's 74–66 win over Miami (FL). February 14 – South Carolina coach Dawn Staley earned her 500th win as head coach of the Gamecocks following their 79–72 road win over LSU.
Conference membership changes A total of six schools joined new conferences for the 2025–26 season. Of these, five moved within Division I, one began reclassification from NCAA Division II.
SchoolFormer conferenceCurrent conference Delaware CAA CUSAGrand CanyonWestern AthleticMountain West Missouri State Missouri Valley CUSA New Haven Northeast-10 (D–II) Northeast Seattle Western Athletic West Coast UMass A-10 MAC
The 2025–26 season was the last in their respective conferences for at least 27 Division I schools. It was also the last season for West Florida before starting reclassification from Division II.
School2025–26 conferenceFuture conferenceAustin PeayAtlantic SunUnited AthleticBoise State Mountain WestPac-12California BaptistWestern AthleticBig WestCentral ArkansasAtlantic SunUnited AthleticColorado StateMountain WestPac-12DenverSummitWest CoastEastern KentuckyAtlantic SunUnited AthleticFresno StateMountain WestPac-12GonzagaWest CoastPac-12HawaiiBig WestMountain WestLittle RockOhio ValleyUnited AthleticNorth AlabamaAtlantic SunUnited AthleticNorthern IllinoisMACHorizonOregon StateWest CoastPac-12Sacramento StateBig SkyBig WestSaint FrancisNECPAC (D–III)San Diego StateMountain WestPac-12 Southern Utah Western Athletic Big Sky Tennessee Tech Ohio Valley Southern Texas State Sun Belt Pac-12UC DavisBig WestMountain WestUTEP CUSAMountain WestUtah StateMountain WestPac-12 Utah Tech Western Athletic Big SkyUtah ValleyWestern AthleticBig WestWashington StateWest CoastPac-12West FloridaGulf South (D–II)Atlantic SunWest GeorgiaAtlantic SunUnited Athletic
Arenas New arenas St. Thomas left Schoenecker Arena after 44 seasons for the new Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. In the first half of a men's and women's doubleheader that officially opened the new arena on November 8, 2025, the Tommies women lost 67–61 to Army. Tarleton State left Wisdom Gym after 55 seasons for the new EECU Center. The Texans defeated NCAA Division III school Schreiner 90–35 in the new arena's first official basketball game on November 3, 2025.
Arena of new D-I teams New Haven played its first Division I home game at the Jeffrey P. Hazell Athletics Center on November 9, losing 57–45 to Iona.
Arena name changes The XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, one of the home arenas of the UConn Huskies, was renamed to the PeoplesBank Arena on June 2, 2025.
Other arena changes On February 27, 2026, the governing board of Miami University in Ohio approved a planned multipurpose on-campus arena to replace Millett Hall, currently home to the men's and women's basketball teams. The new arena is planned to open for the 2028–29 season.
Seasonal outlook
The Top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaching polls
Pre-season polls APRankingTeam1 UConn (27)2 South Carolina (4)3 UCLA4 Texas5 LSU6 Oklahoma7 Duke 8 Tennessee9 NC State10 Maryland11 North Carolina12 Ole Miss13 Michigan14 Iowa State15 Notre Dame16 Baylor17 TCU18 USC19 Vanderbilt20 Louisville21 Iowa22 Oklahoma State23 Michigan State 24 Kentucky т Richmond тUSA Today CoachesRankingTeam1 UConn (28)2 South Carolina (3)3 Texas4 UCLA5 LSU6 Duke7 Oklahoma8 NC State9 Tennessee10 Maryland11 North Carolina12 TCU13 Notre Dame14 Ole Miss15 Michigan16 USC17 Iowa State18 Baylor19 Louisville20 Kentucky21 Vanderbilt22 Oklahoma State23 Iowa24 Ohio State25 Kansas State
Final polls
APRankingTeam1 UCLA (31)2 South Carolina3 UConn4 Texas5 Duke6 TCU7 Michigan8 LSU9 Notre Dame10 Vanderbilt11 Louisville12 Oklahoma13 North Carolina14 Kentucky15 Minnesota16 Iowa17 Ohio State18 West Virginia19 Virginia20 Maryland21 Ole Miss22 Michigan State23 Baylor24 Alabama25 WashingtonUSA Today CoachesRankingTeam1 UCLA (31)2 South Carolina3 UConn4 Texas5 Duke6 Michigan7 LSU8 Vanderbilt9 TCU10 Oklahoma11 Louisville12 Iowa13 North Carolina14 Notre Dame15 Ohio State16 West Virginia17 Kentucky18 Minnesota19 Maryland20 Michigan State21 Baylor22 Ole Miss23 Texas Tech24 Virginia25 Princeton
Top 10 matchups Rankings reflect the AP poll Top 25.
Regular season Nov. 4, 2025 No. 9 NC State defeated No. 8 Tennessee, 80–77 (Ro Greensboro Invitational – First Horizon Coliseum, Greensboro, NC) Nov. 10 No. 3 UCLA defeated No. 6 Oklahoma, 73–59 (Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA) Nov. 15 No. 2 South Carolina defeated No. 8 USC, 69–52 (Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, CA) Nov. 21 No. 1 UConn defeated No. 6 Michigan, 72–69 (Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT) Nov. 26 No. 4 Texas defeated No. 3 UCLA, 76–65 (Players Era Festival – Michelob Ultra Arena, Paradise, NV) Nov. 27 No. 4 Texas defeated No. 2 South Carolina, 66–64 (Players Era Festival – Michelob Ultra Arena, Paradise, NV) Jan. 11, 2026 No. 6 Kentucky defeated No. 5 Oklahoma, 63–57 (Memorial Coliseum, Lexington, KY) Jan. 15 No. 2 South Carolina defeated No. 4 Texas, 68–65 (Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC) Jan. 19 No. 5 Vanderbilt defeated No. 7 Michigan, 72–69 (Coretta Scott King Classic – Prudential Center, Newark, NJ) Jan. 25 No. 2 South Carolina defeated No. 5 Vanderbilt, 103–74 (Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC) Feb. 1 No. 4 Texas defeated No. 10 Oklahoma, 78–70 (College GameDay – Moody Center, Austin, TX) No. 2 UCLA defeated No. 8 Iowa, 88–65 (Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA) Feb. 5 No. 4 Texas defeated No. 5 LSU, 77–64 (Moody Center, Austin, TX) Feb. 8 No. 2 UCLA defeated No. 8 Michigan, 69–66 (Crisler Center, Ann Arbor, MI) Feb. 9 No. 5 Vanderbilt defeated No. 10 Oklahoma, 102–86 (Memorial Gymnasium, Nashville, TN) Feb. 12 No. 5 Vanderbilt defeated No. 4 Texas, 86–70 (Memorial Gymnasium, Nashville, TN) Feb. 14 No. 3 South Carolina defeated No. 6 LSU, 79–72 (College GameDay – Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, LA)
Conference tournament Mar. 6 No. 6 LSU defeated No. 7 Oklahoma 112–78 (SEC tournament – Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, SC) Mar. 7