It’s almost time to start dancing in women’s college basketball. The Power 4 conferences have finished their regular seasons (with the other leagues close behind), which means it’s time to turn to conference tournaments.
With automatic bids in sight, what should we expect? Our writers look at some of the top Champ Week storylines as teams make their final pitches to the selection committee.
Which conference tournament are you most intrigued by?
Emma Baccellieri: The SEC. Even by its usually high standards of competition, the conference has been especially tough over the last few months, and its tournament will almost certainly determine the final No. 1 seed for March Madness. The SEC currently has five teams ranked in the AP top 10… with all five piled up into one phenomenally fierce run from No. 3 South Carolina to No. 4 Texas to No. 5 Vanderbilt to No. 6 LSU and finally No. 7 Oklahoma. Any one of these might conceivably come out on top this weekend in Greenville. But there are a number of teams that could easily play spoiler, too. Kentucky, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Alabama have all shown their ability to hang with the big dogs, and each one of them will be looking to bolster its tournament résumé. It also gives us a final chance to see if Tennessee can get it together after its lackluster season and if Texas A&M can keep the momentum going to push itself off the bubble. There’s no shortage of storylines here.
Dan Falkenheim: The Big 12. If you haven’t been paying attention to the conference, now is the perfect time. Clashing styles abound. Texas Tech and West Virginia are two of the top defensive teams in the country and start all upperclassmen. Four teams (Utah, BYU, TCU and Oklahoma State) rank in the top 10 in three-point rate among high-major teams, while three teams (UCF, Arizona and Colorado) rank in the bottom five. Baylor is led by a prolific scorer in Taliah Scott and one of the nation’s grittiest rebounders in 6' 1" Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, and the program is searching for its first conference title since 2021. And, I’ve gotten this far without mentioning Iowa State—Audi Crooks needs no introduction—or Kansas’s high-powered tandem of Jaliya Davis and S’Maya Nichols. The Big 12 might just have the most parity of any major conference, and the tournament will be the perfect proving ground for Olivia Miles and the Horned Frogs before March Madness begins.
Blake Silverman: Ivy Madness. The Ivy League’s conference tournament is quick, consisting of two semifinal matchups followed by the championship game. There’s real NCAA tournament stakes each year with an automatic bid on the line, but this edition of Ivy Madness will have serious bubble implications as well. Princeton, Columbia, Harvard and Brown make up this year’s tournament field with the Tigers ranked No. 23 in the midst of a 23–3 year. Princeton has won five of the seven tournaments since Ivy Madness began, but here’s where it gets interesting: Columbia has handed Carla Berube’s Tigers two of their three losses this year, with the only other defeat coming to No. 14 Maryland. The Lions have beaten Brown twice and Harvard once, too, with another shot to beat the Crimson on March 7 in the regular-season finale. Princeton should get into the tournament even with a loss, but Columbia may need to win Ivy Madness to get in and extend the school’s NCAA tournament streak to three years in a row. The Ivy got three teams into the tournament for the first time last season, but it’s currently looking like a two-bid conference at best with Columbia at 20–6, plus Harvard at 16–10 and Brown at 16–9. It’s tough to beat the same team twice, let alone three times. We’ll see if Columbia can pull that off in a potential Ivy Madness matchup with Princeton, which could steal a bid from a bubble team elsewhere if the Lions emerge victorious once again.
Which bubble team do you have your eye on this week?
Baccellieri: Nebraska. After dropping six games in a row last month, its tournament future is very much in doubt. This is still one of the most efficient, productive offenses in Division I, with a 54% eFG… but it’s unfortunately weighed down by a mess of a defense. The Huskers will have an opportunity to boost their chances of making the bracket with a strong performance this week in the Big Ten tournament. Nebraska opens against Indiana, which it beat in January, and then would face Ohio State, against which it suffered one of its worst losses of the season back in February. A win over the Hoosiers and a stronger showing against the Buckeyes could be enough to get the Huskers dancing.
Falkenheim: Richmond. The Spiders lost back-to-back games against George Mason and George Washington two weeks ago, which may now mean that they need to win the A-10 tournament to get in. But they also blew out Rhode Island, the conference’s top team, last Thursday. (They are now 0.31 wins above the bubble.) Richmond has made the tournament in each of the last two years and took out a talented Georgia Tech team—former Yellow Jackets Kara Dunn, Tonie Morgan, Dani Carnegie and Chit-Chat Wright all transferred out and have found success elsewhere—in 2025. It would be a shame if seniors Maddie Doogan and Rachel Ullstrom didn’t get one final opportunity to dance in March, especially as they’ve continued to help the Spiders be one of the most efficient offenses in the country.
Silverman: Virginia. The Cavaliers were a big riser last week with back-to-back victories over Stanford and a top-10 win over Louisville. Since then, the Cavaliers fell to North Carolina and fellow bubble team Virginia Tech, both tough losses at home. That set up a tough draw for Amaka Agugua-Hamilton’s team in the ACC tournament as the No. 8 seed with a first-round matchup against Clemson, another school that hopes to make an impression on the selection committee. Should Virginia get by the Tigers like it did earlier this season, regular-season champion and No. 13 Duke awaits. Virginia lost to Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium earlier this year, but the Blue Devils have looked beatable as of late. Following a whopping 17-game winning streak, Duke lost two of its last three regular season games as it fell to Clemson and North Carolina. As Virginia looks to make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2018, the Hoos can’t end the season with three straight losses.
Riser of the week
Texas A&M: How about the final month of the regular season that the Aggies have put together? They have beaten four top-40 teams (Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Ole Miss), and look no further than MAAC-opponents-turned-teammates Ny’Ceara Pryor and Fatmata Janneh for how Texas A&M has turned its season around. Since Feb. 8, Pryor has averaged 17.7 points, 8.6 assists and 3.3 assists per game, while Janneh has 13.7 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. The Aggies rank 21st in adjusted offensive efficiency during that span, and their wins against the Bulldogs and the Rebels last week have placed them firmly in the bubble conversation. —Falkenheim
Faller of the week
Ole Miss: Turn to Rebels coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin for the best summary of what’s gone wrong. “We used to be a defensive team, and because we’ve been scoring a lot of points, we’ve really [gotten] excited about that,” McPhee-McCuin said following Ole Miss’s 74–67 loss to Florida. “That’s just not our identity, and it can’t be our identity right now because we have so many people that are out.” In short: struggling offense, porous defense and ill health. The Rebels shot a combined 19-for-52 on rim attempts in back-to-back losses to Florida and Texas A&M last week. Ole Miss also surrendered a 58.3% effective field goal percentage over those games—it’s worst in any two-game stretch this season—and starting guard Sira Thienou has been sidelined with a bone bruise since Feb. 17. Yes, the Rebels have time to convalesce and get back on track, but they are trending in the wrong direction. —Falkenheim
Highlight of the week
It’s been an up-and-down couple of months for Iowa State since conference play began, but Audi Crooks made sure the Cyclones finished up the regular season with a win. The junior center dropped 41(!) points against Kansas State, her fourth(!!) 40-point game of the season. She also had 13 rebounds against the Wildcats a
Audi Crooks went OFF in the Regular Season Finale vs. Kansas State🔥🔥🔥
— Big 12 Studios (@big12studios) March 1, 2026
🔺41 PTS
🔺16/19 FGs
🔺13 TRBs
Highlights⬇️#Big12WBB | @CycloneWBB pic.twitter.com/ZB4eMxZut9
More College Basketball on Sports Illustrated
- Bobby Hurley, Moe Odum React to Arizona State's Upset Win vs. No. 14 Kansas on Senior Night
- The Magic Eight: Teams That Can Win the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament
- Ranking Men’s College Basketball Power Conferences: Is It Big Ten’s Title to Lose?
- Officials Eject an Irate Bill Self After Questionable Foul Call on Kansas Star Darryn Peterson
- Gonzaga Basketball Players Paid the Latest Petty Price of Conference Realignment
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Top Storylines for Women’s College Basketball Conference Tournaments .
