The NCAA on Monday announced the creation of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. Here’s what you need to know:
- The 32-team postseason tournament will be funded and owned by the NCAA. It will begin play in 2024.
- It raises the number of NCAA-funded postseason spots for Division I women’s basketball teams to 100, the same number as the men’s teams.
- Details about the tournament’s selection process, bracketing principles and host sites will be announced later.
The new secondary NCAA women’s basketball tournament will be called the WBIT.
The 32-team tournament, announced in January, will begin in 2024. This tournament will be run by the NCAA, like the men’s NIT. (The WNIT is privately-owned). pic.twitter.com/uFN7jEJxYK
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) July 17, 2023
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
What does this mean for women’s basketball?
When the Kaplan Report published its review of the gender equity issues between the women’s and men’s basketball tournaments, one of the findings was that the NCAA supports more postseason opportunities for men’s teams than for women’s teams. When women’s programs fail to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament, they often turn down the NIT because the college has to fund its own participation. The WBIT will help to…
