IRVING, Texas – The American Conference has announced its women’s basketball conference schedule for the 2025-26 season.
The league schedule features each of the American’s 13 members competing in an 18-game conference slate. Every team in the American will play six of its 12 conference opponents twice and the other six once – three at home and three on the road.
The 2025-26 season will be the American’s sixth under its media rights extension with ESPN, in which a minimum of six women’s basketball games will appear on ESPN’s linear networks.
The remaining conference-controlled games will stream on ESPN+ on the recently enhanced ESPN App, the preeminent digital sports destination. ESPN+ is available via ESPN’s two direct-to-consumer plans or certain Pay TV providers. Sign up or authenticate at stream.espn.com.
All games that are televised on an ESPN network or service are available on the ESPN App, either through ESPN DTC or authentication via Pay TV credentials.
Since the American’s inaugural season in 2013-14, the conference has earned 22 bids to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship and compiled a 46-19 record in the tournament.
Five programs earned postseason bids in 2024-25. South Florida was selected for the NCAA Championship after winning the American Conference Tournament championship. Defending American regular-season champion UTSA earned a bid to the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBIT), while UAB, North Texas and Tulsa were selected for the WNIT.
Conference play for the American begins on Tuesday, December 30 with six games, including East Carolina vs UAB, Charlotte vs Memphis, Florida Atlantic vs North Texas, South Florida vs Rice, UTSA vs Tulane, and Tulsa vs Wichita State.
Beginning this season, the American Basketball Championship will feature the top 10 teams in a new five-day bracket format. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will advance directly to the semifinals, while the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds will maintain byes to the quarterfinals. The No. 5 and No. 6 seeds will receive byes to the second round. The 2026 Championship will run Tuesday through Saturday, March 10-14 at the Legacy Arena at the BJCC in Birmingham, Alabama.
Tip-off times and television designations will be announced at a later date.