The Iowa women’s basketball team is heading into the 2026-27 season with a rebuilt roster and a nonconference schedule that gives plenty away about the early test ahead. The Hawkeyes now know their path before Big Ten play, and the calendar brings a mix of games they should handle, plus a few heavy hitters that will show exactly where this group stands.
The opening run is the kind of stretch Iowa has to cash in on. Towson, Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Montana State, Drake, Southern, and Northern Illinois all sit on the schedule, and the expectation is simple: win them all.
Those games are where Iowa has to sort out the rotation, get the transfers comfortable, and let McKenna Woliczko settle into the college game. The returning players also need time to find their rhythm.
There’s no room for slip-ups there, because a loss in that stretch would hang around as a bad mark later.
Then comes UConn, and that one looks like the toughest assignment on the board. The Huskies are expected to be loaded again in 2026-27, which is hardly a surprise given what that program has become.
Iowa should be able to hang around early, but the road setting is a problem, even in a place that gets compared to the kind of environment Iowa enjoys at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. At this stage of the season, that atmosphere feels like too much for the Hawkeyes to overcome.
The Baha Mar Event adds another wrinkle, but only partly. Since the other teams in that field are still unknown, there’s no real way to project those matchups yet.
The same uncertainty doesn’t apply to Vanderbilt and Iowa State, though, and both of those games look like toss-ups. Iowa gets a slight edge going in, especially against Iowa State, which took a hard hit in the transfer portal.
That one also comes at home, but Cy-Hawk games have a way of getting strange fast.
Vanderbilt is a different kind of challenge. The Commodores were an NCAA Tournament team last season, and this is the kind of game that can quietly turn into a problem if Iowa isn’t ready. The Hawkeyes will see Vanderbilt in Sioux City, and that gives them a chance to protect the floor, but it also gives the Commodores a real opportunity to come in and grab a notable road win.
Put it all together, and the projection lands at 10-2 in the nonconference slate. That includes seven expected wins from the early run, a loss to UConn, and a 3-1 split from the Baha Mar, Vanderbilt, and Iowa State games. For Iowa, that would be a strong start before the Big Ten grind begins.
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