The 2025 Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament is the postseason women's basketball tournament for the
Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
for the
2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season
The 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 4, 2024. The regular season ended on March 16, 2025, with the 2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament beginning with the First Four on March 19 and ending with ...
. The tournament will take place on three dates between March 10 and 16, 2025, and all tournament games will be played in the home arenas of the higher-seeded school. The winner will receive the conference's automatic bid to the
2025 NCAA tournament, provided such team is eligible. If a reclassifying institution wins the NEC tournament championship, the tournament runner-up will be awarded the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If two reclassifying teams, ''i.e.'' Le Moyne and Stonehill, reach the final of the NEC tournament, the conference will stage an automatic qualifier game between the two non-advancing semifinalists. Since Le Moyne and Stonehill were matched up against each other in the tournament semifinals, an ineligible team was guaranteed to reach the NEC final. Consequently, the winner of the semifinal between Fairleigh Dickinson and Chicago State receives the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the winning team will be making its NCAA Division I tournament debut.
Seeds
For the third straight year, the NEC changed its rules regarding eligibility for the conference tournament. Teams transitioning from Division II may participate in the NEC tournament starting with the third year of their transition. Therefore, Mercyhurst will not be eligible for the NEC tournament until 2027. The change is prospective rather than retroactive. Consequently, Le Moyne, in their second transition year, remain eligible for the 2025 tournament. This means the eight conference members other than Mercyhurst will participate in the tournament.
In 2024, the top eight teams in the conference regular-season standings qualified, and all transitioning NEC teams were eligible for the conference tournament.
Teams will be seeded by record within the conference,
with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. Although Mercyhurst is ineligible for the tournament, they may still be involved in a tiebreaker and affect the outcome of a multi-team tie.
Schedule
Tournament highlights
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Final
Bracket
Teams will be reseeded after each round with the highest remaining seeds receiving home-court advantage.
Game summaries
:''All times are in
EDT (
UTC−4).''
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
*** Note: The winner of Chicago State–Fairleigh Dickinson game will receive the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, since both Stonehill and Le Moyne are ineligible for NCAA postseason play as institutions reclassifying from
Division II. ***
Final
Awards and honors
''Source:''
Tournament
MVP
MVP most commonly refers to:
* Most valuable player, an award, typically for the best performing player in a sport or competition
* Minimum viable product, a concept for feature estimating used in business and engineering
MVP may also refer to:
...
:
;NEC All-Tournament Team
Statistics
:''Source:''
References
{{2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament navbox
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...
Northeast Conference women's basketball tournament
Northeast Conference women's basketball tournament