In our women’s basketball rankings, we take you beyond wins and losses to reveal what truly makes a college basketball program great. To come up with our list of the top women’s basketball programs, we consider a variety of factors—not just wins and losses, but also academic rankings from U.S. News & World Report and Academic Progress Rates. The result is a list of schools we’d recommend to any female basketball player seeking an elite athletic program and a strong education. Learn more about how we arrived at our rankings through the Elite 50 guide, and browse through STACK’s rankings for 20 other sports at the bottom of this page.
STACK’s Top 10 College Women’s Basketball Programs

College	Score	’12 U.S. News Rank	APR [Out of 1,000]	National Ranking ’11/’10/’09	Games Above .500 [Past 3 Seasons]	STACK Factor
1. Stanford	100	5	980	4/2/3	92	192
2. UConn	90.77	58	990	3/1/1	112	48
3. Duke	81.21	10	995	7/6/14	73	156
4. Texas A&M	74.65	58	961	1/14/7	65	144
5. Baylor	67.77	75	960	5/4/6	71	48
6. Ohio State	63.61	55	993	17/15/9	63	132
7. Notre Dame	61.17	19	974	2/11/NR	59	108
8. Oklahoma	58.63	101	1000	15/3/4	54	120
9. Florida State	53.04	101	980	20/9/18	57	132
10. Green Bay	51.65	78	996	9/NR/NR	80	12

Inside the Rankings: Baylor Women’s Basketball
Perhaps no NCAA women’s basketball team has a brighter future than Baylor University. Following appearances in the 2010 Final Four and the 2011 Elite Eight, the Lady Bears have their sights squarely set on a national championship in 2012.
Since head coach Kim Mulkey took the reins in 2000, national title contention has been the norm. Before her arrival, Baylor had never made an NCAA women’s tournament appearance. In the last 11 years, Mulkey has led her squad to 10 tournament appearances and one championship.
During her tenure, Coach Mulkey has been able to recruit some of the nation’s most talented players, such as junior center Brittney Griner. Griner came to Waco in 2009 as Rivals.com’s top-ranked women’s high school basketball player and immediately proceeded to set a women’s college record for most blocks in a single season. She is currently the only collegiate player on the USA Basketball Women’s National Team roster.
Check out the rest of STACK’s college rankings:

Football	Softball	Men’s Swimming	Men’s Cross Country
Volleyball	Women’s Track	Women’s Swimming	Men’s Golf
Men’s Basketball	Men’s Track	Hockey	Women’s Golf
Lacrosse	Men’s Soccer	Wrestling	Men’s Tennis
Baseball	Women’s Soccer	Women’s Cross Country	Women’s Tennis