The 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 11, 2016 and will end with the Final Four in Dallas, Texas on April 2, 2017. Practices officially began on September 30, 2016.
April 20 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) sanctions for the 2016–17 school year. A total of 23 Division I programs in 13 sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, with Southern being the only women's basketball team so penalized.
November 2 – The Associated Press preseason All-American team was released. South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson was the leading vote-getter (32 votes). Joining her on the team were Ohio State guard Kelsey Mitchell (31 votes), Notre Dame forward Brianna Turner (29), Baylor forward Nina Davis and Washington guard Kelsey Plum.
November 23 – In what ESPN called "one of the most bizarre scenarios imaginable at a major sporting event", top-ranked Notre Dame and Louisiana–Lafayette used two different venues during Notre Dame's 91–51 win. The game began at Campbell Center, a high school venue in Houston, but a power outage during the second quarter prompted the teams to complete the game at another venue. Rice, whose women's team had just completed a home game, offered its Tudor Fieldhouse, and the two teams bused to that venue and finished the game there.
December 5 – The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) announced that North Alabama would move from the Division II Gulf South Conference and join the ASUN in 2018.
January 7 – A bench-clearing brawl breaks out during the third quarter of the UNLV–Utah State game after a UNLV player is fouled. Four players from each team are ejected. Three days later, the Mountain West Conference, home to both schools, issues one-game suspensions to three participants in the brawl (two from UNLV and one from Utah State) and reprimands six other participants.
January 13 – The Western Athletic Conference announced that California Baptist will move from the Division II Pacific West Conference and join the WAC in 2018.
January 26 – The Summit League announced that North Dakota, currently a member of the Big Sky Conference, will join the league in 2018.
February 2 – The Colonial Athletic Association announces that two conference wins by Charleston will be treated as Charleston losses for purposes of seeding in the conference tournament, though it does not reverse the results. The conference confirmed that the Cougars had provided "improperly sized" basketballs in the two games, though it would not confirm that men's basketballs were used instead of women's balls.
Milestones and records
December 8 – In Ohio State's 108–73 win over Southern, the Buckeyes' Kelsey Mitchell becomes the fastest Division I women's player to reach 2,000 career points, reaching the mark in her 79th game. The previous record of 82 was held by Missouri State's Jackie Stiles.
December 11 – Kelsey Plum becomes the all-time leading scorer in Pac-12 Conference history (for either women or men), passing the former record of Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike during Washington's 92–66 win over Boise State.
December 16 – Baylor defeats Winthrop 140–32, setting a new Division I women's basketball record for victory margin.
January 10 – Connecticut crushes South Florida 102–37 to give the Huskies their 90th straight win, equaling the program's own record for the longest winning streak by a Division I team of either sex.
January 13 – Plum becomes the 12th player in Division I women's history with 3,000 career points during Washington's 90–73 win over Arizona.
January 14 – UConn defeats SMU 88–48 for its 91st straight win, establishing a new Division I record streak.
February 3 – Stanford defeats USC 58–42, giving Cardinal head coach Tara VanDerveer her 1,000th career win. She joins late Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt and current Duke men's head coach Mike Krzyzewski as the only Division I coaches to reach the milestone.
February 13 – UConn extends its record winning streak to 100 games with a 66–55 win over South Carolina.
February 25 – Plum scores 57 points, a school record for either sex, in Washington's 84–77 win over Utah, surpassing Stiles for the top spot on the all-time NCAA Division I women's career scoring list.
Only one school joined a new conference for 2016–17:
The top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.
South Dakota opened the new Sanford Coyote Sports Center. The completion of the 6,000-seat venue saw the South Dakota men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's volleyball teams move out of the considerably larger DakotaDome, which remains home to football, track & field, and swimming & diving. The first women's basketball game in the new arena was the opening leg of a November 13 doubleheader with the men's team, with the Coyotes defeating Stephen F. Austin 80–74.
This is expected to be the last season for two Division I teams in their now-current venues:
DePaul will leave its current on-campus home of McGrath–Phillips Arena for the new off-campus Wintrust Arena, a 10,000-seat venue under construction at the McCormick Place convention center on Chicago's Near South Side. The new arena will also house the DePaul men's team.
NJIT will leave one on-campus venue for another. The aging Fleisher Center (capacity 1,600) is set to be replaced by the Wellness and Events Center (capacity 3,500) for the 2017–18 season.
Conference winners and tournaments
Each of the 32 Division I athletic conferences ends its regular season with a single-elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference is given the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the 2017 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament. This will be the first season in which the Ivy League holds a conference tournament.
Several teams changed coaches during and after the season.
