| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  | South Carolina | South Carolina and Dawn Staley kicked the door down and won the national title, holding off Mississippi St in the final. | 4 |
| 2 |  | Mississippi State | An excellent run by the Bulldogs as they shocked UConn in the National Semifinals. | 7 |
| 3 |  | Connecticut | UConn's streak of 111 wins in a row ended against MSU as the Bulldogs were the better team in the Final Four. | 1 |
| 4 |  | Stanford | It was a great season for the Cardinal as they got back to the Final Four thanks to a total team effort all year long. | 6 |
| 5 |  | Baylor | The Bears fall short again in the Elite Eight as they could not find an answer for Morgan William of Mississippi State. | 2 |
| 6 |  | Notre Dame | Notre Dame battled Stanford to the end in the Elite Eight, but fell just short once again to the Cardinal. | 3 |
| 7 |  | Florida State | The Seminoles made it to the Elite Eight before falling to South Carolina in the Stockton Regional. | 11 |
| 8 |  | Maryland | Maryland ran into a buzzsaw in Oregon in the Sweet 16 as the Ducks were too difficult to slow down offensively. | 5 |
| 9 |  | Oregon State | Offense got away from the Beavers in the Sweet 16 against Florida State but the Beavers will be a force for a while. | 8 |
| 10 |  | Ohio State | It was a strong season for Ohio State as they got back to the Sweet 16 before falling to Notre Dame. | 9 |
| 11 |  | Washington | The Huskies got back to the Sweet 16 before falling to Mississippi State and now are looking for a new head coach. | 12 |
| 12 |  | Louisville | The Cardinals were overwhelmed by Baylor in the Sweet 16 as the Bears were close to unstoppable. | 13 |
| 13 |  | UCLA | The Bruins showed well against UConn in the Sweet 16 of the Bridgeport Regional. | 14 |
| 14 |  | Duke | Duke fell to Oregon at home in the second round as they could not slow down Ruthy Hebard of the Ducks. | 10 |
| 15 |  | Texas | Texas has now been to three consecutive regional semifinals for the first time since the 2002-04 seasons. | 18 |
| 16 |  | Oregon | The Ducks had a phenomenal run to the Elite Eight as Kelly Graves has this program really trending upward. | NR |
| 17 |  | Miami (FL) | The Blue Demons were overwhelmed by Mississippi State in the round of 32 in Starkville 92-71. | 16 |
| 18 |  | North Carolina State | The Wolfpack fall in a tough second round battle down in Austin to a very good Texas team. | 20 |
| 19 |  | Drake | The Bulldogs end the season with a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title and a first round NCAA Tourney loss. | 19 |
| 20 |  | Creighton | The Blue Jays advanced on to the second round before falling to Oregon State in Corvallis. | 21 |
| 21 |  | Oklahoma | Oklahoma got a nice win over Gonzaga before falling to a red hot shooting Washington team in the second round. | 22 |
| 22 |  | West Virginia | The Mountaineers finished the 2016-17 season very nicely as they made it to the round of 32. | NR |
| 23 |  | Quinnipiac | The Bobcats took the women's college basketball world by storm this March by advancing to the Sweet 16. | NR |
| 24 |  | Syracuse | Syracuse fell to Connecticut in the second round as the Huskies were too tough to slow down all game long. | 25 |
| 25 |  | Kentucky | The Wildcats advanced to the round of 32 before falling at home to Ohio State. | 15 |
Final Women's Basketball Top 25 Rankings
Mon, 04/10/2017
