The Big East women's basketball tournament is a conference championship tournament in women's
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. It was first held in 1983, at the end of the 1982–83 college basketball season that was the first in which the
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...
sponsored women's basketball. Following
the 2013 split of the
original Big East along
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
lines, the women's basketball history of the original conference has been maintained by the non-football league that assumed the Big East name.
The tournament determines the conference's champion, which receives an automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament.
From 2004 through 2013, the tournament was held in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum
at the
XL Center
The XL Center (originally known as the Hartford Civic Center) is a multi-purpose arena and convention center located in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Owned by the City of Hartford, it is managed by the quasi-public Capital Region Developme ...
(formerly known as the Hartford Civic Center). The first three tournaments after the relaunch of the Big East in 2013 were hosted by
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...
. In 2014, opening-round games were played at
McGrath–Phillips Arena on the school's
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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campus and all other games played at
Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Rosemont, Illinois, United States. It is located near the intersection of Mannheim Road and Interstate 90, adjacent to the city limits of Chicago and O'Hare International Airport. The facility opened i ...
in suburban
Rosemont. All games in the 2015 tournament were held at Allstate Arena, and all 2016 tournament games were held at McGrath–Phillips Arena. The 2017 tournament was the first since the relaunch to be held outside the Chicago area, with all games being played at
Al McGuire Center
The Al McGuire Center is a 3,700-seat arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which houses the women's volleyball and basketball teams at Marquette University. It also serves as a practice facility for the men's basketball team. It was opened in 2004, repl ...
on the
Marquette University
Marquette University () is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Henni, John Martin ...
campus in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
. From 2018–2020, the tournament was held at
Wintrust Arena
Wintrust Arena at McCormick Square, previously referred to as DePaul Arena or McCormick Place Events Center, is a 10,387-seat sports venue in the Near South Side community area of Chicago that opened in 2017. It is the current home court for ...
at the
McCormick Place
McCormick Place is the largest convention center in North America. It consists of four interconnected buildings and one indoor arena sited on and near the shore of Lake Michigan, about south of downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States. McCor ...
convention center on Chicago’s
Near South Side.
Starting in 2009, the tournament expanded to include all 16 of the conference's teams at that time. The teams finishing 9 through 16 in the regular season standings played first round games, while teams 5 through 8 receive a bye to the second round. The top 4 teams during the regular season receive a double-bye to the quarterfinals.
[ The 2013 tournament, the final one under the original Big East structure, saw 15 teams participate, following West Virginia's 2012 move to the ]Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
. The tournament now features all 11 members of the reconfigured conference.
In June 2020, it was reported that the tournament will return to Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun Arena
The Mohegan Sun Arena is a 10,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, located inside the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The arena facility features of configurable exhibition space and a clear span. It was built by the Perini Buil ...
moving forward with the return of UConn.
History of the tournament finals
;Notes
Performance by school
Most Outstanding Player
References
{{NCAA women's college basketball tournament navbox