The 2026–27 NCAA Division I women's basketball season will begin on November 1, 2026. The regular season will end on March 14, 2027. The 2027 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament will begin with the March Madness opening round on March 17 and end with the championship game on April 4, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Rule changes
Season headlines April 8, 2026 – Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that the NCAA was considering a new athletic eligibility framework. Under the proposal, NCAA athletes would have five full years of eligibility, starting on their 19th birthday or high school graduation, whichever is sooner. No redshirting would be allowed, even for medical reasons. Existing eligibility waivers for military service, religious missions, or (for women) maternity leave, would not be affected. April 10 — UC Santa Barbara announced it would return to the West Coast Conference (WCC) for the 2027–28 season after having been absent for nearly 60 years. UCSB had been a WCC member from 1964 to 1969, but left to join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, now known as the Big West Conference, and had been in the PCAA/Big West ever since, except for a stint as a Division I independent from 1974 to 1976. April 17 – Notre Dame and Villanova announced that their men's and women's teams would open the 2026–27 season with a November 1 doubleheader in Rome. The schools noted that the event was inspired by Pope Leo XIV's background as an Augustinian friar and Villanova alumnus. May 7 – The NCAA announced that the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments would expand from 68 to 76 teams starting with the 2026–27 season. May 27 – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced that it would rename itself as the Metro Conference effective July 1. June 5 – The NCAA Division I Cabinet slightly modified the age-based eligibility proposal, addressing concerns raised by the men's basketball and men's ice hockey communities, as well as the service academies. Under the new proposal, expected to be voted on by the end of June, athletes' eligibility clocks would start upon their full-time college enrollment or the start of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever is sooner. June 23 – The Division I Cabinet unanimously approved the age-based eligibility proposal as modified earlier that month, officially taking effect with the end of the Cabinet's meeting the next day. Students enrolling full-time in college for the first time in 2026, plus those who had remaining eligibility under previous rules at the end of 2025–26, can use whichever model is most advantageous to them. Those who exhausted their eligibility under previous rules in 2025–26 will not receive any additional eligibility, even if they initially enrolled in 2022–23 (giving them four years of eligibility). June 24 – On the same day the new age-based eligibility model took effect, a group of 15 college basketball players, all of whom graduated from high school in 2022 and exhausted their eligibility under the previous rules in 2025–26, filed suit in Hamilton County, Ohio challenging the application of the new model to their high school cohort. Other suits on similar grounds were expected to be filed in other states. June 26 – The Coastal Athletic Association announced that Fairfield would join from the Metro Conference in July 2027. July 1 – The University of New Orleans rejoined the Louisiana State University System, adopting the new name of LSU New Orleans. The university's athletic brand changed accordingly, retaining the Privateers nickname. July 10 – The NCAA announced a significant change to bracketing policy for the Division I women's tournament. Effective immediately, bracketing of the top 16 teams will be based solely on their true ranking by the selection committee, without regard to conference affiliation. In another change brought about by the expansion to a 76-team field, the baseline for the committee's Wins Against Bubble metric was changed from the #45 team in the NET ranking to #55. July 31 – Rulings in two separate court cases undercut the NCAA's planned "five for five" eligibility model as applied to 2022 high school graduates. First, a Tennessee state court judge granted a temporary injunction that allowed 19 basketball players in that class an extra season of eligibility. Several hours later, a federal judge in Colorado issued a preliminary injunction that applied to all members of the high school class of 2022 who had exhausted athletic eligibility, regardless of sport, and also provided those individuals an extra season of eligibility. The NCAA was expected to appeal.
Conference membership changes A total of 29 schools are set to start play in new conferences for the 2026–27 season. The Pac-12 Conference resumed full operation after a two-season hiatus, with legacy members Oregon State and Washington State joined by seven new members. Another 18 schools moved within Division I, one started reclassification from NCAA Division II, and one started reclassification to NCAA Division III. This does not include the three legacy Western Athletic Conference members (Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, UT Arlington) that remained members through that conference's renaming as the United Athletic Conference.
SchoolFormer conferenceCurrent conferenceAustin PeayAtlantic Sun United AthleticBoise StateMountain WestPac-12California BaptistWestern AthleticBig WestCentral ArkansasAtlantic SunUnited AthleticColorado StateMountain WestPac-12DenverSummit LeagueWest Coast Eastern KentuckyAtlantic SunUnited AthleticFresno StateMountain WestPac-12GonzagaWest CoastPac-12HawaiiBig WestMountain WestLittle Rock Ohio ValleyUnited AthleticLouisiana Tech CUSASun BeltNorth AlabamaAtlantic SunUnited AthleticNorthern IllinoisMACHorizonOregon StateWest CoastPac-12Sacramento StateBig SkyBig WestSaint FrancisNECPAC (D–III)San Diego StateMountain WestPac-12Southern UtahWestern AthleticBig SkyTennessee Tech Ohio ValleySouthernTexas StateSun BeltPac-12UC DavisBig WestMountain WestUTEPCUSAMountain WestUtah StateMountain WestPac-12Utah TechWestern AthleticBig SkyUtah ValleyWestern AthleticBig WestWashington StateWest CoastPac-12West FloridaGulf South (D–II)Atlantic SunWest GeorgiaAtlantic SunUnited Athletic
The 2026–27 season is the last in their respective conferences for at least three Division I schools.
School 2026–27 conferenceFuture conferenceFairfieldMetroCAAUC San DiegoBig WestWest CoastUC Santa BarbaraBig WestWest Coast
Arenas
New arenas IU Indy will leave the IU Indy Gymnasium, also known as The Jungle, after 44 seasons for the new James T. Morris Arena. The first game will be played there in November 2026.
Planned openings for 2027 The 2026–27 season is intended to be the last for Western Michigan men's and women's basketball at the teams' current on-campus home of University Arena. Both teams are planned to move to the new Kalamazoo Event Center in downtown Kalamazoo.
Seasonal outlook
The Top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaching polls
Top 10 matchups
Regular season
Early-season tournaments
Upsets An upset is a victory by an underdog team. In the context of NCAA Division I women's basketball, this generally constitutes an unranked team defeating a team currently ranked in the top 25. This list will highlight those upsets of ranked teams by unranked teams as well as upsets of No. 1 teams. Rankings are from the AP poll.
Winner ScoreLoserDateTournament/eventNotes
Non-Division I teams over Division I teams In addition to the above-listed upsets in which an unranked team defeated a ranked team,
Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road-games"–i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes). Italics type indicates winning teams in an early season tournament (or event) Early season tournaments are tournaments played in the early season. Events are the tournaments with the same teams in it every year (even rivalry games).
Winner ScoreLoserDateTournament/eventNotes
Conference and tournament winners Each of the 32 Division I athletic conferences will end its regular season with a single elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference receives the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. Unless otherwise noticed, the winners of these tournaments will receive automatic invitations to the 2027 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.