The Southland Conference's Women’s Basketball Tournament began in 1983, with the winner of the tournament receiving the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship. There was no tournament from 1984-1987, but in 1988 the season-ending tradition returned for good, with a format much as in the men's tournament, with opening rounds at the home court of the higher seed, and a designated location thereafter. Starting in 2007, both the men's and women's tournaments were played at the same neutral site, for all rounds.