Big Ten women's basketball fans now have their official roadmap for the upcoming NCAA Division I season. The conference released its full 2026/27 schedule this week, locking in 162 games spread across its 18 programs — finally answering fans' questions about when the women's college basketball season officially starts.
When Does Women's College Basketball Start?
The Big Ten season gets underway Saturday, December 5th, with five games before pausing for the holiday break. Action picks back up December 29th with seven matchups, while the regular season wraps February 28th.
Each team plays an 18-game NCAA Division I conference schedule, drawing one women's basketball conference rival for a home-and-away series while meeting the other 16 just once. That format guarantees at least one major home and one major away game, with tipoff times and broadcast details still to come.
Big 10 Women's Basketball Schedule Culminates in Conference Tournament
From there, all roads lead to Las Vegas. The 2027 Allstate Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament runs March 3-7 at the city's T-Mobile Arena.
UCLA enters as the team to beat after capturing the 2025/26 conference title with a 79-51 rout of South Carolina before lifting the NCAA championship trophy in April. That run marked the Big Ten's first since Purdue won it all in 1999 — a 27-year gap the Bruins finally closed.
