Your gay guide to the 2025-26 NCAA women’s college basketball season
This is going to be the gayest college basketball season yet. Here are eight bold predictions. The post Your gay guide to the 2025-26 NCAA women’s college basketball season appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
Here are eight bold predictions for the women’s college basketball season, including my Final Four, with an emphasis on the LGBTQ players and coaches. You can thank me when every one of these predictions comes true. If none comes true, it will still be a sensational 2026 season.
Azzi Fudd, guard, Connecticut
Azzi Fudd will lead her UConn Huskies to back-to-back titles. With her girlfriend, Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers, coming off one of the most incredible Rookie WNBA seasons of all-time, I think that Fudd, ever the competitor, will do the only thing she can to best her girlfriend. Fudd was last year’s Finals MVP, and after an offseason of new transfers, this well-oiled machine is ready to run it back.
Olivia Miles, guard, TCU
Olivia Miles, girlfriend of WNBA’s Maddy Westbeld, will lead her new TCU Horned Frogs to the Final Four. One of many moves this offseason was former Notre Dame star Miles’ move to Fort Worth to join the now relatively star-less TCU Horned Frogs. After Hailey Van Lith graduated, Miles takes over as the leader of this perennial underdog team.
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Rori Harmon, guard, Texas
Rori Harmon will lead her Texas Longhorns to the Final Four, after hard-launching her relationship with former teammate Shaylee Gonzales. Harmon has been a force on the Longhorns for a few years now, and I feel the time is right for her to have a banner season. Armed with Madison Booker in the paint, the Longhorns are certain to be a title contender.
South Carolina
Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks — with transfer Ta’Niya Latson — will make it to the Final Four. After coming up short to the UConn Huskies in last year’s Final, Staley added the nation’s leading scorer in Florida State transfer Latson. One of my seemingly “easier” takes, it almost goes without saying that Staley’s Gamecocks, the preseason No. 2, are going to be a contender all season long.
Lauren Betts, center, UCLA
RuPaul Drag Race’s Lauren Betts — now armed with the power of sisterhood — will cement her status as the favorite to be the 2026 WNBA No. 1 Overall Pick. This time, they’re not gay, they’re actually sisters. Led by coach Cori Close, expect this team to be supercharged as Betts’ younger sister, Sienna Betts, joins the already dominant UCLA Bruins.
Flau’jae Johnson, guard, LSU
Flau’jae Johnson’s senior year will be the biggest for the Big 4 at LSU. Expect nothing less during Johnson’s last college season, all under the helm of coach Kim Mulkey. Add a star in out transfer MiLaysia Fulwiley and the sky’s the limit for the Tigers.
Jan Jensen, head coach, Iowa
Jan Jensen’s steady haircut, and continually evolving Iowa team, will continue to make waves. Jensen, who is LGBTQ, might have lost Lucy Olsen to the WNBA, but she has veteran Hannah Stuelke to look to this season. Stuelke, one of the last four Iowa players from Caitlin Clark’s 2023 squad, is a seasoned leader on a team that is no stranger to major upsets. Jensen, in her second year as coach, is looking to continue cementing her Hawkeyes legacy in the post-Clark era.
Romances galore
Lastly, in my gayest and perhaps boldest prediction…
After an active offseason that resulted in more than 1,300 transfers, I predict there will be in-season romances hard-launched. The transfer portal went wild in the offseason, with stars such as Cotie McMahon going to Ole Miss, Serah Williams and Kayleigh Heckel to UConn, plus Fulwiley to LSU, Miles to TCU and Latson to South Carolina. You simply cannot have this many players changing teams to not have a new relationship (or two…or three…) come about.
Whether or not fans will be privy to that intel, is up to the players. What I know for certain, though, is that with this many new players on this many “new” teams, the national rankings should have a lot of movement. Get ready for some big games, new names and unlikely heroes.
The NCAA season tips off Monday and runs through early April. I’ll be here to give you all the (gay) coverage you need, all season long.
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The post Your gay guide to the 2025-26 NCAA women’s college basketball season appeared first on Outsports.
