The WAC women's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC). The WAC has held a postseason tournament to crown a women's basketball champion every year since 1991. At first the regular season champion hosted it but at its height, the tournament was held at larger urban venues. With the departure of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

teams, the tournament had returned to campus, with each game in the tournament being held in one campus venue, each year. Since 2011, the tournament has been held at the

Orleans Arena Orleans Arena is a 9,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Paradise, Nevada, in the Las Vegas Valley. It is located at the The Orleans, Orleans Hotel and Casino and is operated by Coast Casinos, a subsidiary of Boyd Gaming, Boyd Gaming Corporation. ...

, part of the

Orleans Hotel and Casino The Orleans is a hotel and casino located in Paradise, Nevada, near the Las Vegas Strip. It is owned and operated by Boyd Gaming. It includes the large multipurpose Orleans Arena that can be converted into an ice rink and can seat 9,000 attende ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. The winner of the WAC tournament is normally guaranteed a berth into the

NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Div ...

every year. An exception to this was in 2021, when California Baptist won the WAC tournament but was ineligible for the NCAA tournament because the school was in the midst of its transition from

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

to Division I. Starting with the 2023 tournament, the WAC adopted a new seeding system based on advanced team metrics, developed in large part by statistical guru

Ken Pomeroy Ken Pomeroy is the creator of the college basketball website and statistical archive KenPom. His website includes his College Basketball Ratings, statistics for every NCAA men's Division I basketball team, with archives dating back to the 2002 ...

. Tournament entry will still be based on conference record.

Results

Records

Note: 2021 champion California Baptist began a transition from

in 2018 and thus was not eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until the 2022–23 season. * Schools highlighted in pink are former WAC members as of the current 2022–23 WAC season. * Records for Texas–Rio Grande Valley include those of Texas–Pan American. UTRGV was formally founded in 2013 and began operation in 2015 via the merger of UTPA and UT Brownsville. The UTPA athletic program and its history were transferred to UTRGV. * Among current WAC members, four have competed in at least one WAC tournament but have yet to reach the title game: Abilene Christian,

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...

UT Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A&M ...

, and

Utah Valley Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, Utah, Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains the cities of Provo, Utah, Provo, Orem, Utah, Orem, and their suburbs, including Alpine, Utah, A ...

. Of these schools, only Utah Valley has competed in more than one WAC tournament. The 2021–22 season was the first for Abilene Christian and Sam Houston. UT Arlington competed in the 2013 tournament in the only season of its first WAC tenure; it rejoined for the 2022–23 season. * Two other members,

Tarleton Tarleton is a village and civil parish in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Liverpool and south-west of Preston. The parish includes the village of Mere Brow and the hamlets of ...

and Utah Tech (renamed from Dixie State before the 2022–23 season), have yet to compete in a WAC tournament. Both schools started transitions from

to Division I in 2020. Under then-current WAC rules, transitional schools were ineligible to compete in the WAC tournament until their third transitional season. (This was changed in advance of the 2022–23 season to allow transitional schools to compete in the tournament upon joining the WAC.) Both schools are ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until 2024–25. *

Southern Utah Dixie is a nickname for the populated, lower-elevation area of south-central Washington County, the southwest corner of the State of Utah, bordering nearby Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. The area lies in the northeastern Mojave ...

is playing its first WAC season in 2022–23. * New Mexico State and Sam Houston will leave the WAC after the 2022–23 season for

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

References

{{NCAA women's college basketball tournament navbox

Results

Records

See also

References