The NCAA announced the creation of the WBIT on July 17, 2023, with the first edition to be held in 2024.[1] The WBIT supplies an additional 32 funded opportunities for postseason play, providing gender parity to men's college basketball, which has the NCAA-owned NIT.[2] The existing non-NCAA postseason tournaments, the Women's National Invitation Tournament and Women's Basketball Invitational, are "pay-to-play" events where teams must pay a fee to the event sponsor, in addition to travel costs.[3]
The "first four out" of the NCAA tournament will be the top four seeds of the WBIT. All regular season champions who were not otherwise invited to the NCAA tournament, and are eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play,[a] are automatically selected for the WBIT, similar to the rule in the men's NIT prior to 2024. The top eight schools host first and second-round games. Only the top 16 teams are seeded, with the remaining 16 teams placed as close to their schools as possible. Unlike the NCAA tournament, geographical considerations for each team on a given seed line are considered, so that the No. 2 seeds are placed as close to the No. 1 seeds, and so forth.[4] The higher seeded school will be able to have home court advantage until the final four round, which is held at a designated site. In 2024, this site was Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, which also hosted the semifinals and final of the 2024 men's NIT.
^In the first season of the WBIT, the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles were won by Southern Indiana, which was ineligible for the NCAA tournament or WBIT due to being in the second year of a four-year transition from NCAA Division II.
