By Josh Dinkelman/UNI Athletics
INDIANAPOLIS — UNI women’s basketball is headed to the 2025 Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament for the first time in program history as announced by the WBIT on Sunday night. The tournament’s second season of existence tips off on Thursday, March 20 for first-round action hosted by higher-seeded institutions.
The UNI Panthers are slated to match up with the third-seed Gators of Florida in first-round action in Gainesville, Florida. UNI and Florida will meet for the second time in program history with the last meeting coming in 2012. The Gators were victorious in the 2012 South Point Thanksgiving Shootout by a score of 80-63.
The 32-team field includes representatives from 20 different conferences. The Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) leads the field with four selections which include UNI, Belmont, Drake, and Missouri State. Other multi-team conferences include the ACC, Big 12, Big East, A-10, MWC, and WCC. 22 of the 32 teams will be participating in the WBIT for the first time with a total of nine wins combined over the remaining 10 teams in the field from last season’s inaugural Tournament.
From the WBIT, “The WBIT selection committee is excited to announce this year’s tournament following the success of last year’s inaugural tournament,” said Barbara Burke, Former Deputy Director of Athletics, University of Iowa, and chair of the WBIT committee. “The selection committee did an excellent job of identifying and selecting an incredible competitive 32 team field. With 100 NCAA teams experiencing postseason competition in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship and Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, speaks to the growth and excitement for women’s basketball. The WBIT selection committee congratulates all 32 teams, and we look forward to a great WBIT tournament.” Preliminary round WBIT games will be televised on ESPN+, while the semifinals will be on ESPNU, and the finals will be on ESPN2. Additional WBIT information can be found on ncaa.com/WBIT.”