2012–13 NCAA Division I women's basketball season
| 2012–13 NCAA Division I women's basketball season | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Preseason AP #1 | Baylor Lady Bears |
| NCAA Tournament | 2013 |
| Tournament dates | March 23 – April 9, 2013 |
| National Championship |
New Orleans Arena New Orleans |
| NCAA Champions | UConn Huskies |
The 2012–13 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November and ended with the Final Four in New Orleans, April 7–9.
The 2012–13 season saw the second wave of membership changes resulting from a major realignment of NCAA Division I conferences. The cycle began in 2010 with the Big Ten and the then-Pac-10 publicly announcing their intentions to expand. The fallout from these conferences' moves later affected a majority of D-I conferences.
In addition, two schools are moving from Division II starting this season. These schools will be ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until completing their D-I transitions in 2016. Finally, one school that had announced a transition to Division II, New Orleans, announced that it would halt its transition and remain in Division I.
The top 25 from the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls.
A number of early-season tournaments marked the beginning of the college basketball season.
Thirty athletic conferences each end their regular seasons with a single-elimination tournament. The teams in each conference that win their regular season title are given the number one seed in each tournament. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The Ivy League does not have a conference tournament, instead giving their automatic invitation to their regular season champion. As of 2013, the Great West Conference does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Men or Women's College Tournament.
For this list, a "major upset" is defined as a win by a team seeded 7 or more spots below its defeated opponent.
After the NCAA Tournament field is announced, 64 teams were invited to participate in the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The tournament began on March 20, 2013, and ended with the final on April 6. Unlike the men's National Invitation Tournament, whose semifinals and finals are held at Madison Square Garden, the WNIT holds all of its games at campus sites.
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