May 20—The rosters are all but set for the 2026-27 season and there’s been plenty of movement thanks to the transfer portal. So, with a better sense of what to expect from all 18 Big Ten teams, Illinois women’s basketball beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Joe Vozzelli puts forth his first offseason power rankings:
The Trojans are capable of winning the national title next April in Columbus, Ohio. So much of whether USC reaches that high ceiling will depend upon how returns from a knee injury from the 2025 NCAA tournament and if the do-everything guard is again at a National Player of the Year level. Pairing an at the height of her game Watkins with top freshman , and , the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the 2026 class, would afford coach one of the best rosters in women’s college basketball.
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Is this the year the Wolverines reach the Final Four? Maybe. There’s a lot to like about the team coach has assembled in Ann Arbor, Mich. That , , and will all be juniors installs Michigan not only as a legitimate Big Ten title contender but could see the Wolverines make a deep NCAA tournament run after a 77-41 blowout loss at the hands of Texas in the Elite Eight this past March.
The Hawkeyes improved significantly through the transfer portal. Bringing in combo guard from Georgia was an important upgrade for coach . Carnegie will reunite with in the Iowa backcourt, while 6-foot-4 center , who averaged 18.0 points per game as a sophomore last season, and versatile forward give the Hawkeyes a formidable frontcourt. That puts Iowa up there with USC and Michigan among the upper-tier Big Ten teams.
has had to chip away at replacing the six seniors who played a major role in the Bruins winning their first-ever national championship. Close achieved that by leaning heavily on the transfer market. That approach worked with UCLA landing (Iowa State), (North Carolina), (TCU) and (Arkansas). Brown, a 6-2 forward, was considered a top-five transfer after putting up 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists on 43.1 shooting this past season.
The top-three scorers from last season’s Sweet 16 team are all back for and Co. with , and returning. A veteran core that led the Gophers to a fourth-place Big Ten finish. Landing Penn State transfer was also key with her 19.2 points per game the fifth-best mark in the Big Ten last winter. Merkle helps fill the void left by and in the Minnesota rotation.
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In , the Buckeyes trust. So much of Ohio State‘s success will rest on the shoulders of the 5-7 guard. The Nashville, Tenn., native has impressed since she arrived in the Big Ten and jumped from averaging 15.4 points as a freshman to a Big Ten-leading 23.2 ppg as a sophomore. seemed rather content with his team with the bulk of the rotation back (minus ) as the Buckeyes didn’t dip into the portal.
Expectations have changed drastically in C-U. This after ‘s Illini reached the second round of the NCAA tournament for a second straight year with the youngest roster in the field of 68. Returning the top-nine players in the rotation from that 22-win Illinois team means big things are expected of this group. That type of pressure is new. But , , and the rest of their teammates should mean Illinois is a top-20 team at the start of the 2026-27 season.
The Huskies had their best season as a program since the era in 2025-26. And Washington shouldn’t see any drop-off this upcoming season. Not with , and running it back after the Huskies ended up with a 22-11 record following a second-round NCAA tournament loss in overtime at TCU. North Carolina State transfer was also a solid addition for coach , as well, to play alongside McGaughy.
This isn’t the typical roster. Let’s get that out of the way first thing. With seven freshmen or sophomores, the Terrapins will look a lot younger than usual in 2026-27. Frese still has some veterans to rely upon, however, as returns for her senior year and Maryland brought in (Stanford) and three-point specialist (Missouri) via the portal. Of interest will, of course, be watching freshman wing after the 2026 News-Gazette All-State Player of the Year and five-star recruit flipped from Clemson to the Terrapins.
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It was a mixed bag for Kelly Graves in the offseason. Losing to graduation and to the portal counted as key departures. Mevius, who only played two games last season due to a knee injury, was granted an extra year by the NCAA and left Eugene, Ore., to join Green Bay. And yet, the Ducks will have some high hopes with top-two scorers and on board for another season after Oregon finished 23-13 in 2025-26.
The Cornhuskers really struggled late last season losing eight of their final 11 games. A poor finish to the regular season and a one-and-done showing at the Big Ten tournament saw Nebraska slip to barely making the NCAA tournament field. The Cornhuskers rebounded with a First Four win against Richmond before a first-round loss to Baylor. Nebraska is set up well, though, for the 2026-27 season with a foundation built around , and .
‘s program experienced a massive roster reset this offseason. Yes, the Spartans retained , , and . But Michigan State also had nine players leave East Lansing, Mich., through graduation, the WNBA draft and the portal. Signing McDonald’s All-American was a big deal, and (Colorado) and (West Virginia) will supply depth. Regardless, the Spartans’ fortunes will rest with Hallock and Blair, and Hallock’s health is a major question mark coming off a foot injury.
The Hoosiers have regressed the last two seasons. After a stretch of four straight years where Indiana reached at least Sweet 16 of March Madness, including Elite Eight trip in 2021, the Hoosiers won 20 games in 2024-25 and went 18-14 last season, missing out on the NCAA tournament entirely. has a big scoring void to fill with , the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer at 22.8 ppg, now in the WNBA. It’s a major roster flip in Bloomington, Ind., with six transfers out and four transfers coming in.
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Year one for in Madison, Wis., wasn’t all that bad. Even if the Badgers finished with a 16-18 record with Wisconsin losing 10 straight games before going on a run and reaching the semifinals of the WBIT (a 67-50 loss to Columbia). The Badgers got some good news when , who averaged 12.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists per game as a junior last season, decided to return for another year after initially entering the portal and later withdrawing her name.
The seat might be lukewarm for in West Lafayette, Ind. But expect the Boilermakers to be patient with one of their own, as Gearlds played for Purdue. One thing is clear the Boilermakers will look a lot different this winter regardless of the results on the court with seven players transferring out and that group being replaced by five transfer newcomers. Gearlds went after some high-level scorers from outside of the power conferences in landing guards (North Texas) and (UC Riverside).
The bottom three on this list will all be under new management next season. Starting with the Scarlet Knights, who moved on from and brought on former LSU assistant . Redus, who is only 36, has already shown why he’s had a reputation as one of the top recruiters in the women’s game as he stacked several talented classes while on ‘s Tigers’ staff. The Scarlet Knights have the most active in acquisitions with a Big Ten-most six transfers coming to Piscataway, N.J. so far.
It made perfect sense that the Nittany Lions would turn to alumna to lead the program. Penn State, after all, is trying to turn back the clock to when Wright wore a Nittany Lions’ uniform and was a key part of PSU winning back-to-back Big Ten regular-season titles. But has left a mess in not-so-Happy Valley these days with 10 players part of a mass exodus this offseason amid the coaching change. It can’t get much worse after Kieger was 84-123 in seven seasons as coach.
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It might be the most challenging job in the Big Ten. For a while made the Wildcats relevant, with the program reaching its peak in 2020 when Northwestern shared the Big Ten regular-season title with Maryland. But the bottom fell out and the Wildcats have had single-digit wins in each of the last four seasons. McKeown retired at the end of 2025-26. feels like a good choice, though, after her success at Princeton in sending the Tigers to five straight NCAA trips.
