The College Season Begins Monday

Excitement continues to build in the Bay Area for the inaugural season for the Golden State Valkyries, but college basketball will also have an impact on the upcoming WNBA season. The college season will start on Monday, running through early April before the WNBA Draft marks the transition between the two seasons. There has been plenty of recent growth for the WNBA, but women’s college basketball hitting the mainstream helped add to that growth.

The WNBA Draft

This college season will help inform the next Entry Draft in April and Valkyries fans will be hopeful that a cornerstone piece to the team for years to come can be added at the event. College players who are on track to graduate by July or were born in 2003 or earlier can enter the draft. College players whose eligibility ends with the 2024-25 season or players born in the United States in 2003 who are not in college and have not been in a previous draft are automatically available. There will continue to be players who can enter the 2025 draft or stay in college for a future draft and those decisions will come as seasons end around the country. Players born outside of the United States in 2005 who have never attended college in the United States are also eligible for this draft and only this draft unless they attend college in the future.

The WNBA confirmed that the Valkyries will start with picks 5, 18, and 31 in the draft, which was certainly not as high as the team or some fans had hoped that they would be slotted. There are historically very few guaranteed stars after the first few picks, although plenty of great players have been picked below the lottery, and the likelihood of any player drafted after the first round sticking in the league long-term is small with many not even earning a spot on the final roster for the season. Golden State could start trading for or away picks as part of the Expansion Draft process or after that as the free agency process gets underway and teams start making other moves.

Local College

With a lack of professional basketball for many years in the area, college basketball has been the highest level of women’s basketball available to local fans for many years. Stanford has certainly been an excellent program to follow with conference and national championships over the years and one of the big storylines for the season has to be the program’s transition to the leadership of her former player and assistant Kate Paye.

Realignment

The other large story in this college season in teams changing conferences. Cal and Stanford joined the Athletic Coast Conference, which means that a whole new set of teams will be making the trip to the Bay Area early next year along with long distance travel for both schools. Their former conference mates Oregon State and Washington State will be playing in the West Coast Conference this season and face local teams like USF, Santa Clara, and St. Mary’s before leaving again.

Realignment is certainly not limited to the highest level of college sports. Menlo has made the move from NAIA to NCAA Division II, joining local teams Dominican and Academy of Art in the Pacific West Conference. Jessup from Rocklin and Vanguard from Southern California are also making that jump this season. Realignment is certainly going to continue to make the news at all levels as San Jose State will still be facing their usual Mountain West foes, but the conference will split soon and the remaining schools will have some new teams join them. UC Merced is set to join the California Colleges Athletic Association when they make their NCAA jump from NAIA, joining local schools like Cal State East Bay, San Francisco State, and Sonoma State.