The winter basketball season for the Iowa Colleges and Universities playing at the NAIA, D3, and D2 level is coming into the back half of the season as all the teams are getting ready for the conference post season and beyond.
SGI Women’s Basketball Top 5 Power Rankings – Week of Jan. 25th, 2026
The top team in our rankings is once again the two-time defending NAIA National Champions from Sioux Center, Iowa the Dordt Defenders
- Dordt Defenders – The NAIA Number One ranked Defenders are 19-1 and have a great chance to get back to the NAIA Final Four again to defend their National Title in Sioux City this spring.
- Briar Cliff – The #16 Ranked NAIA Chargers are 16-5 and have their sights set on a strong postseason run.
- Grand View – The Vikings are 14-7 and in 2nd in the Heart of America Conference standing at 11-2. They are receiving votes in the NAIA Top 25 Poll.
- Here we have a tie between Coe College (14-4) and Wartburg (12-6) as both D3 teams are tied for the top of the American Rivers Conference and having strong years and potentially long post season runs. (see our great interview with Coe Head Coach Kayla Waskow below)
5. Upper Iowa (D2) is back on track with two wins this week and 10-9 overall.
In NAIA Northwestern College is 10-10, Morningside is 11-10, Clarke is 10-10, and Mt. Mercy is 9-10 to round out our top 10 rankings for this week.
SGI Women’s Basketball Rankings 1.25.26
In this week’s column wanted to give a special shout-out to Head Coach Brent Brase of Cornell College Women’s Basketball.
Coach Brase Cornell College reaches the 400 Win Career Milestone
On Saturday, Jan. 24th, Coach Brase reached the 400-win milestone in his 32nd season at the college level. He’s won 254 games in 21 seasons at Cornell, where he’s led the Rams to four MWC championships. Brase compiled 146 victories as head men’s coach at Coe College from 1994-2005.
Coach Brase started his career as a prep player at Waspie Valley, IA (He is part of the legendary McKowen coaching tree) and graduated from Cornell in 1990 (His wife Ann is a Cornell grad) and he is the winningest coach in Cornell College history. P.S. The Ram Women are on a roll wining 8 of their last 9 games this year.
Congratulations to Coach Brase on the achievement, It is great to see the Womens Basketball team on a roll in Mount Vernon in 2026.
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