What 2 Watch 4
The basketball season tips off with gusto, as defending champion UC San Diego opens the season on the road at Big 10 foe Washington as the first game on the docket to open the 2026-27 campaign. Teams begin to hit the hardwood over the coming days with Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton also opening on Monday, and six more squads coming online Tuesday. CBU joins the fray Wednesday with Long Beach State and UC Irvine the last to open their schedules on Thursday as they both take on Power-4 teams on the road. The Beach tussle at California and UC Irvine is at Pauley Pavilion against the defending national champion UCLA Bruins.
Every Big West home contest appears on ESPN+ throughout the season. Check listings for specific game information.
The Big West in the Rankings
Four Big West schools are listed in the first College Insider Women’s Basketball Mid-Major Top 25 poll, with Defending champion UC San Diego is ranked fifth with UC Irvine occupying 22nd. UC Santa Barbara and California Baptist are both receiving votes in the poll.
Watch Us Work
The Big West will deliver the most basketball coverage in conference history during the 2026–27 season, with nearly 400 men’s and women’s games available to fans through continued partnerships with ESPN and Spectrum SportsNet. Along with every home basketball game appearing on ESPN+, nine women's conference games will hit the regional airwaves of Spectrum SportsNet beginning in the New Year.
In addition to unprecedented access for audiences across the United States, select games will be distributed internationally through Big West International, bringing Big West basketball to fans around the world. The expansive coverage showcases all 12 member institutions throughout the regular season and postseason. Learn more >>>
Preseason Prognostications
After reigning supreme in consecutive conference postseasons, UC San Diego was selected to repeat as champions in the 2026-27 Big West women’s basketball preseason poll, as voted upon by the league’s 12 head coaches. This marks the first, and only, time the Tritons will sit atop the preseason listings.
UC San Diego received 10 first place votes and 120 total points in the polling to top defending co-regular-season champion UC Irvine in the listings for the top spot. The Anteaters occupy second with 108 points and one first place vote. Third place belongs to UC Santa Barbara, who tallied 94 points to edge out incoming member California Baptist by one as the 2025-26 WAC double champions picked up 93 points in the listings. Fellow newcomer Sacramento State is next in the vote-getting with 88 points and the final first place nod.
All seven Preseason All-Big West Team selections play for the top quintet, with UC San Diego recording a trio of selections and Sacramento State pulling in a pair. Typically a six-person team, ties in the voting warranted a seventh slot be awarded for consecutive seasons.
Last year, the Tritons (24-9, 17-3 BW) made their way through The Big West bracket as the No. 2 seed after tying for second in the regular season standings, defeating fourth-seeded Hawai’i in the Rainbow Wahine’s swan song, 60-48. UCSD is just the second Division I women’s basketball team to make the NCAA Championship field in its first two seasons of eligibility after reclassifying from Division II.
Six Tritons return from the championship squad in their final season as a member of The Big West, headlined by preseason picks Erin Condron, Rosa Smith and Lev Feiman. Condron, a senior forward/center from Woodend, Victoria, Australia, is coming off a first team All-Big West season with multiple UCSD single-game and season records after averaging a team-best 15.6 points and 8.5 rebounds with 1.7 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. Condron led the league in field goal percentage, connecting at a clip of 52.1 percent. This is Condron’s second straight preseason nod.
The guard duo of Smith and Feiman made the preseason listings for the first time after honorable mention campaigns in 2025-26. Smith, a graduate student from Kirkland, Wash., averaged 10.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals for the Tritons in 2025-26. Smith connected on 1.8 three pointers per game with 57 total swishes from distance a year ago. Set for a sophomore season for the Tritons, Feiman is looking to grow on the 6.5 points and 1.9 rebounds provided in 15.3 points off the bench for Heidi VanDerveer’s squad.
The Anteaters (26-7, 17-3 BW) landed in second in the voting after a record-setting season in 2025-26 after setting school records in overall wins (26), conference wins (17) and win streak (16) as well as several statistical categories. UC Irvine won a second Big West regular season title in the last four years tying atop the leaderboard with the Tritons but fell short in an overtime loss to Hawai’i in the semifinals. Losing Big West Player of the Year Hunter Hernandez, UCI will have big shoes to fill with reigning Big West Coach of the Year Tamara Inoue focusing on balanced scoring, bench depth and the same defensive identity the ‘Eaters are known to exhibit on the court.
After a gap in the points between the top two teams, UC Santa Barbara (20-10, 12-8 BW) was slotted in third in the voting, up three places from their final seeding in last year’s postseason bracket. The Gauchos return one of the league’s sharpshooters from the outside in Preseason All-Big West Team selection Zoe Borter. The senior forward from Beaverton, Ore., led The Big West and was 26th in NCAA Division I in three-point percentage connecting at a 40.9 percent clip with 65 triples on the year (2.2 per game). As a team, UCSB swished 8.8 threes per game, good for 13th nationally, while holding opponents to 26.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc which rated eighth in the country.
Just one point behind UCSB was California Baptist (23-11, 15-3 WAC), fresh off a NCAA Championship appearance as the WAC title holders where the Lancers lost to eventual national champions No. 1 seed UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in the first round. CBU is represented on the preseason team by WAC Freshman of the Year Lauren Olsen, who set the school freshman scoring record with 502 points to average 14.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game a year ago. The product of Douglas, Wyo., finished third in the conference in scoring average in a first collegiate season and is one of only three players returning who saw the court for meaningful minutes for the Lancers in 2025-26.
Sacramento State (15-8, 8-10 Big Sky) rounded out the top five in the preseason listings and sees the final two members of the preseason team. The Hornets made the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament a season ago, and returns seven letterwinners from the squad including senior guard and Preseason All-Big West Team member Natalie Picton. In a first year at Sacramento State after transferring from Big Sky rival Montana State, Picton, a senior from Welland, Ontario, Canada, finished second on the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game while averaging 3.7 rebounds and a team-best 2.2 steals per game. Joining Picton on the preseason team is Kansas State transfer Jenessa Cotton. The junior forward hails from Orange, Calif., and returns closer to home after posting averages of 4.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting .422 (49-for-116) from the field for the Wildcats.
Teams No. 6 through 8 in the voting are final new face to the league Utah Valley (70 points),followed by UC Riverside (59) and CSUN (53). Should the predictions ring true, the Matadors would hold the eighth and final place in the 2027 Credit Union 1 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship bracket. Then, Cal Poly (35) followed in ninth before the pairing of Cal State Bakersfield and Long Beach State (25), with Cal State Fullerton (22) rounded out the listings.
The Big West Highlights $50,000 Grant
The Big West continues its commitment to supporting women affected by cancer, highlighting the impact of a $50,000 Kay Yow Cancer Fund grant to the MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute at Long Beach Medical Center.
Made possible through fundraising efforts over the past two seasons as part of The Big West's Tough Like Tammy campaign, the grant is helping remove critical barriers to cancer care for under-resourced patients in Southern California. The funding provides transportation assistance to and from medical appointments, ensuring more patients can access the treatment they need.
The initiative reflects the lasting impact of Tough Like Tammy, inspired by Big West women's basketball analyst Tammy Blackburn, and the continued partnership between The Big West and the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
“The patients who receive these funds are tremendously grateful,” MemorialCare/Todd Cancer Institute Co-Chair Lillian Bretado said. “It’s a reminder that the community is standing behind them. There is somebody rooting and cheering them on to get through this cancer journey.”
The month of October opened at the MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute at Long Beach Medical Center with a sea of pink at the annual "Hope Lives Here" event, which included a $50,000 check presentation from the Kay Yow Cancer fund in this year's festivities. As Breast Cancer Awareness Month winds down, the time is now to recognize that awareness, support and care for those in need does not end when the calendar turns to November. The hope, unity and fight against breast cancer and all cancers affecting women is a year-round endeavor that The Big West is proud to support through Tough Like Tammy and the Kay Yow Fund.
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