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 (appro ...

. 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 (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

sponsored women's basketball. Following the 2013 split of the original Big East along

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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 PeoplesBank Arena, (originally known as the Hartford Civic Center and formerly as the XL 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 qu ...

(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, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

. In 2014, opening-round games were played at McGrath–Phillips Arena on the school's

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campus and all other games played at Allstate Arena 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 on the

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, by John Henni, the first Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Ar ...

campus in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. From 2018 until 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, Chicago, Near South Side Community areas of Chicago, community area of Chicago t ...

at the

McCormick Place McCormick Place is a convention center in Chicago. It 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 the Chicago ...

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 collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

. 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 the Uncasville, Connecticut, Uncasville area of Montville, Connecticut, Montville, Connecticut located inside the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The arena facility features of configurab ...

moving forward with the return of UConn.

History of the tournament finals

;Notes

Performance by school

Among current schools,

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, Creighton,

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, Georgetown, and Xavier have never won the tournament.

Most Outstanding Player

References

{{NCAA women's college basketball tournament navbox