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Part 2 of the 2026 Women’s College Basketball Conference Championship Guide is here! If it goes anything like the first set of games, we’re going to have a great time! A lot of games and facts to share, so let’s get into it!

The Idaho Vandals won the regular season title and are currently on a 15-game winning streak. They needed every last one of them as they edged out Montana State by just a game. The Vandals feature a balanced attack, whereas the Bobcats are very Taylee Chirrick-heavy. With good reason, as the 5’11” sophomore knows how to fill out a statsheet. She averaged 18 points, 7 rebounds. 3.6 assists, and a wild 4.4 steals per game in conference play. She’s looking to lead Montana State to its 2nd straight visit to the NCAA Tournament. Fun fact: they call this tournament “Starch Madness” because it’s held in Boise, Idaho.

First of all, update your conference tournament website. You still have 2025 information up there. These athletes deserve better. Hell, pay me to do it. Okay, McNeese State ran away with the regular season crown, going 21-1 in Southland play. They do it with a stifling defense that only allows 52.3 points per game. That’s the 5th-best scoring defense in the nation. They won a game where they scored just 49 points. That’s hilarious. This is Ayla Guzzardo’s first season as head coach. Not bad!

Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, and Texas-Rio Grande Valley figure to be the other contenders. The Ladyjacks, as they are called at Stephen F. Austin, get a boost as Ashlyn Traylor-Walker looks more like herself after missing the first 19 games of the season. She’s averaging 17 a game over her last 5 games for last year’s conference tournament champs. Another player to watch is Texas-Rio Grande Valley’s Charlotte O’Keefe, whose 14.2 rebounds per game is 2nd in the country.

At the risk of them being eliminated before this is released, we have to talk about the Maine Black Bears. More specifically, their star, Adrianna Smith. She just took home the Conference Player of the Year award for the second time in her career after missing all of last season with an injury. Smith became the first player ever to lead the American East in points, rebounds, and assists in the same season. That’s absolutely insane. She was the only player in the nation to put up 20+ points per game, 10+ rebounds, and 4+ assists.

Her Black Bears finished 2nd in the conference to last season’s tournament champs, Vermont. The Catamounts’ defense is suffocating, allowing the 4th-fewest points per game in the country. They’re led by the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year, Nikola Priede. She can score, too, and put up 19 a game in American East play.

They’ll be joined in the semis by Binghamton, who will play Maine, and UMBC, who will play Vermont. Both of those teams advanced on last-second shots. This setup is interesting because they have 4 days of rest between games.

Talk about the regular season mattering! If you don’t finish in the top-8, head on home, big dawg. A very top-heavy conference. Regular-season champ Miami (OH) hasn’t won the conference tournament since 2008. They went on to lose to an Angel McCoughtry-led Louisville team in the first round. I’m old.

Ball State looks to repeat as tournament champions. They finished with the same 16-2 record as Miami (OH), but both of their losses were at the hands of the RedHawks. This is their 4th straight 25-win season. They’re in the top-10 in the country in both rebounds and assists per game.

UMass finished a game behind those two. This was a 5-27 team just two seasons ago. Incredible job of turning things around by coach Mike Leflar. This is their 1st year in the MAC, in case you were very confused like me. Their sophomore, Yahmani McKayle, finished 3rd in the conference in scoring.

Alabama A&M lost its first conference game, then reeled off 17 straight wins to run away with the regular season title. That’s the good news. The bad news? This is NOT a gauntlet-style tournament, so the Bulldogs are going to have to win 3 in a row if they want to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance. SWAC trivia: former Mississippi Valley State player Patricia Hoskins held the Division I scoring record from 1989 until it was broken by Jackie Stiles in 2001. Hoskins didn’t know she had broken the previous record until the sports information director informed her after the game. Compare that to the Caitlin Clark coverage. Things are a lot different. Also, Caitlin’s white. Huh? Who wrote that?

California Baptist won the regular season title behind freshman Lauren Olsen, who put up nearly 17 points per game in conference play. However, I’m stuck on second-place Abilene Christian. Is Abilene, Texas, the lowcountry of Texas? Head coach Julie Goodenough was also the head coach at Charleston Southern. Her assistant, Yannick Denson, was an assistant at the College of Charleston. Then, you’ve got G Jazmyn Stone, who transferred in from the College of Charleston. Even stranger to me are freshmen twins Molly and Emma Daugherty, who played for Summerville High School, home of former NFL WR AJ Green. What is going on? Do they have a lot of luxury hotels for no reason, and gentrification?

Impressive season from Howard as they ended Norfolk State’s 3-year run as regular season champions. 13-1 in MEAC play, but their most impressive win of the season was a 3-point win over a Fairfield team that was ranked #25 headed into conference tournament action. The Bison are looking to make their 2nd NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Ty Grace. They are led by Zennia Thomas, who led the conference in scoring and rebounding.

Norfolk State could continue its conference championship run, though. They finished 3rd in the conference despite losing their top 2 scorers and head coach from last season. Sandwiched between the Bison and the Spartans in the regular season standings were the Hawks of Maryland-Eastern Shore. They set a program record for wins and are looking to follow that up by heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

Regular-season champion Princeton has lost 5 Ivy League games in the last 3 seasons, all of them to Columbia. Luckily, they’re on the other side of the conference tournament bracket. Madison St. Rose has been fantastic for the Tigers this season. She’s putting up just under 15 points per game in Ivy League play. She missed nearly all of last season after tearing her ACL. If you were confused by headlines of her entering the transfer portal when this season is over, it’s because you can’t spend 5 seasons at an Ivy League program, no matter what.

Columbia coach Megan Griffith is a former Princeton assistant. The Lions are looking for their 3rd straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Their star, junior G Reilly Weiss, leads the conference in scoring. Earlier this year, she outscored Dartmouth 40-32 by herself. However, she’s yet to perform up to her standard in the conference tournament, so keep an eye on that.

Last year’s conference tournament champions, Harvard, beat Columbia to end the regular season. Their player to watch is junior Karlee White, who returned from a knee injury just in time for the conference slate and has had a breakout season. All 3 of these teams made the NCAA Tournament last year, but the numbers are much tighter this season, so only the conference champion will be able to relax on Selection Sunday.

Could the drought be over in Ruston, Louisiana? One of the original powerhouse programs, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs haven’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since bowing out in the first round of the 2011 tournament under coach Teresa Weatherspoon. Current head coach Brooke Stoehr is familiar with that history, as she was on the last Tech team to make the Final Four back in 1999. Stoehr’s Bulldogs aren’t going to turn back the clock that much, but they did run away with the regular season title, finishing 5 games ahead of 2nd place Florida International at 17-1. Keep an eye on their star, Paris Bradley, who was the Conference USA Rookie of the Year last season.

Rice had its perfect conference record ruined in the final game of the regular season against UTSA. However, this is a gauntlet-style bracket, so they’ll be waiting alongside 2-seed East Carolina in the semifinals. If you’re looking for a sleeper pick, check out North Texas. Both of their losses to Rice came by a combined 6 points, and they drilled ECU in their only matchup of the season by 24. They feature the nation’s leading rebounder, Megan Nestor. She’s had 6 20+ rebound games this year, including a monster 34-point, 31-rebound performance against Texas Southern.

Navy took home just its second outright regular-season title this year, as it went 15-2 to barely beat out Army and Holy Cross. They also snagged a solid non-conference win early in the year when they took down Florida. Their star, Zanai Barnett-Gay is racking up the hardware. She repeated as Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and added the Conference Player of the Year trophy to a case that already includes the first Defensive Player of the Year honor and 2023-24 Patriot League Rookie of the Year. Tournament MVP is the only thing missing on her resume.

Army and Holy Cross have survived some sudden coaching changes to carve out their spots near the top of the league. Holy Cross’ Maureen Magarity stepped down after the Crusaders’ 2nd straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024 to spend more time with her family. Candice Green has taken over and has them ready to return to the Big Dance. Then, last year, Army lost its coach, Missy Traversi, to family reasons of her own after she led the Black Knights to 25 wins, their best season since 2015-16. Oddly enough, Traversi took over the Army job from Maureen Magarity’s dad, Dave. They’ve hardly missed a beat under new coach Katie Kuester, as they look to make their first tournament since that 2015-2016 season.

The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights went undefeated in NEC play for the 2nd straight season. They’re just absurd on defense, allowing the fewest assists and 2nd-fewest points per game in all of Division I. In 15 of their 18 conference games, they actually forced their opponent into more turnovers than assists. That’s silly. Even sillier is the fact that this is a pretty young team, with 3 of its 4 leading scorers being underclassmen.

The team with the best chance to beat them is probably Long Island and NEC Player of the Year Kadidia Toure. They had the ball with a chance to win the game against the Knights earlier this year, but FDU forced a turnover to hold on for a 1-point victory. Don’t look up what happened in their second matchup.

It’s time to be extremely biased. I’m full on rooting for my hometown College of Charleston Cougars to follow up their first-ever regular season conference title with their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. They are led by the Barbot twins. Taryn figures to repeat as CAA Player of the Year after leading the conference in scoring at 19.4 points per game. She gets a lot of those points in transition as she also averages just over 2 steals per game.

Taylor is the Cougars’ floor general. She basically does it all, as evidenced by her triple-double against rival Charleston Southern earlier this season. She led the conference in assists at 5.8 per game and can wreak havoc on the defensive end herself.

Then, there’s the conference’s leading rebounder, Grace Ezebilo. She holds the program’s Division I era records for rebounds in a game (24) and in a season (346 and counting). Her 11.9 rebounds per game are 7th in the nation.

This is a fun squad that likes to apply pressure on defense and get out and run on offense. Their coach, Robin Harmony, played for Lin Dunn at Miami and coached NCAA career steals leader Chastadie Barrs at Lamar. I will be devastated if they don’t win this tournament. Plenty of good teams in the conference, though, as Campbell, Drexel, Monmouth, and Stony Brook all won at least 12 conference games. Campbell and Monmouth were the only CAA teams to beat the Cougars this season. Respectfully, don’t let it happen again.

The Murray State Racers are appropriately named. They’re there to do one thing: put the ball in the hoop. They do it to the tune of a 5th-best in the nation 85.8 points per game. They’re led by G Halli Poock, who put up an electric 25.5 points per game in MVC play. She’s actually one of three Racers, along with Haven Ford and Sharnecce Currie-Jelks, who average 17+ points per game. All that scoring led to a 19-1 record in conference play as they look to make it back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament.

I need someone to tell me if Tuti Jones made history for the 2nd-place Belmont Bruins. She led the conference in steals for the first time since her freshman season. That was back in 2020-2021. Those are the only two times she’s done it. I can’t imagine there’s been a larger gap in time between leading a conference in a major statistical category than that. The Bruins went 16-4 in MVC play.

Three MVC teams won 13 conference games this year, so there’s plenty of talent here. I’ll be pulling for the Valparaiso Beacons, though. They are the only winless team in Division I at 0-31. They’ve lost every conference game by an average of 25 points per game. Imagine if they went on a run and made the tournament. Sure, they’d need A’ja Wilson and Air Bud to do it, but I choose to believe in them.

Alright, that will do it for the 2026 Women’s College Basketball Conference Championship Guides! I’ll cook something up for the NCAA Tournament. As always, thank you for reading! Don’t forget that I put out a weekly watch guide with every sport in it! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get it first thing every Thursday! Also, share with your friends! I’ll see you on Thursday!