The Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) is a women's
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
tournament created in 2009 by Sport Tours. The inaugural tournament occurred at the conclusion of the
2009–10 NCAA Division I women's basketball season
The 2009–10 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November 2009 and ended with the 2010 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament's championship game on April 6, 2010 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The tournament opened with ...
. Selections for the WBI are announced on
Selection Monday. Prior to the
2020 COVID-19 pandemic the field for the WBI consisted of a 16-team,
single elimination divided into two regions with 8 seeded teams in each. The current format consists of 8 teams, all of which are guraranteed 3 games. Teams are picked based on
NET, record, conference standings, end of year performance, and quality wins and losses, after the NCAA and WNIT fields are filled.
Teams in the WBI traditionally competed on the home court of the higher seed; recent tournaments have been held at the Clive M. Beck Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Teams not making the
NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic ...
or
Women's National Invitation Tournament
The Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) is a women's national college basketball tournament with a preseason and postseason version played every year. It is operated in a similar fashion to the men's college National Invitation Tourname ...
(WNIT) are eligible for the WBI.
Although the WBI shares a similar name with the
College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and fills a similar role (a postseason tournament outside the auspices of the NCAA and NIT tournaments), the two competitions are operated by separate organizations and are unrelated except for the coincidental name.
Champions
Through the 2019 edition, games were played at campus sites; the championship game venue is listed. Starting with the 2021 edition, the entire tournament is played at a single site.
See also
*
NAIA Women's Basketball Championships
References
External links
*
{{NCAA women's college basketball tournament navbox
Postseason college basketball competitions in the United States
Recurring sporting events established in 2010
College women's basketball competitions in the United States