NEW YORK – The 2025-26 Columbia women's basketball schedule was announced on Friday. The three-time reigning Ivy League champions, and last season's outright champions, will once again test themselves against some of the nation's top programs. The season begins on the road at Butler on Friday, November 7.
Season tickets will go on sale in September. For more information, contact the Columbia University Athletics ticket office at 888-LIONS-11 or
lionstickets@columbia.edu.
Led by 10th-year head coach
Megan Griffith '07CC, the Lions are coming off another record-setting campaign. They won their first outright Ivy League Championship and earned the program's first NCAA Tournament victory by defeating Washington in the First Four. The Ivy League regular season championship was their third straight overall, while also earning the program's second straight at-large selection to the Big Dance.
Columbia's non-conference schedule includes nine games against teams that qualified for last year's NCAA Tournament, WBIT or WNIT. Five of those games are against last season's NCAA field, which includes the home opener against Richmond (Nov. 15), all three contests at the Cancun Challenge – Kansas State (Nov. 27), South Dakota State (Nov. 28) and North Carolina (Nov. 29) – as well as a late December trip to Fort Myers to battle Florida Gulf Coast (Dec. 29). The Lions will also host 2025 WBIT competitors Saint Joseph's (Nov. 20) and UTSA (Dec. 20) and travel across the Hudson to renew a rivalry with Seton Hall (Dec. 9). Butler qualified for the 2025 WNIT.
In total, Columbia's 2025-26 schedule includes eight games against NET Top 50 teams and 12 games against NET Top 100 teams from a year ago.
The Lions will add another year to both their NCAA Tournament and Ivy League Championship banners prior to the home opener against Richmond on Saturday, November 15. The game is scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.
Saint Joseph's and Binghamton (Nov. 24) round out a three-game homestand before Columbia heads to Cancun, Mexico, over Thanksgiving Weekend. The three-day tournament begins on Thanksgiving Day against Kansas State. All three of Columbia's games in Cancun will tip at 1:30 p.m. This will be Columbia's second time competing in the Cancun Challenge after making its first appearance in 2017.
Local games at Manhattan (Dec. 3), home against Wagner (Dec. 6), and at Seton Hall (Dec. 9) bring the Lions into exams break. Eleven days later, they host last year's American Athletic Conference regular-season champion UTSA in what will be a first-ever meeting between the two programs. A return trip to reigning Atlantic Sun champion Florida Gulf Coast (Dec. 29) closes out the calendar year.
The Lions open the Ivy League season at home, welcoming Cornell to Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium on Saturday, January 3. All game times for Ivy League contests will be announced at a later date.
Columbia will play three straight home games against Yale (Jan. 17), Brown (Jan. 19) and Dartmouth (Jan. 24). A back-to-back home Ivy weekend is scheduled for February 13-14 against Princeton and Penn. The home and regular-season finale takes place Saturday, March 7, against Harvard.
The 2026 Ivy League Tournament will be hosted by Cornell at Newman Arena in Ithaca, New York. The semifinals are scheduled for Friday, March 13, followed by the Championship Game on Saturday, March 14.
The NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Special will once again be televised live on ESPN on Sunday, March 15. The selection show starts at 8 p.m. ET.
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