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TAMPA, Fla. — Paige Bueckers wasn’t asked about her WNBA aspirations in the press conference following UConn’s national championship win against South Carolina on Sunday. The 23-year-old was minutes removed from her last game for the Huskies, but it was clear the room of reporters in Tampa allowed her to cherish the moment.
Bueckers, however, will have to face the reality of professional basketball almost immediately as the projected No. 1 pick. The WNBA draft is April 14—the season starts a month later—and she told ESPN before the Sweet 16 that she would declare for the draft.
The quick turnaround isn’t new. Last year, Caitlin Clark and Kamilla Cardoso played in the national championship game—witnessed by the largest television audience in women’s basketball history—then took part in the 2024 WNBA draft in Brooklyn eight days later.
It’s the reality of the WNBA’s calendar, which is expanding to a record-high 44 games this year. It falls toward the end of the NBA playoffs and ends before the NBA restarts in October.
Major CBA Implications
While Bueckers chose to forego her final year of college eligibility, three other potential first-round picks in the 2025 draft decided to stay in college.
ESPN reported last week that Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, the projected No. 2 pick, would return to college and enter the transfer portal. LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson and UConn’s Azzi Fudd also announced during the tournament that they were returning for one final NCAA season.
The trio’s decision to return to college—which means joining a 2026 WNBA draft class that will also feature the likes of UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice—highlights the expectation of higher salaries starting in 2026. The Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association opted out of its current CBA in October, and a new CBA is expected by 2026, should they agree to a deal with the league.
The players are seeking a significant pay increase starting in 2026, which would include rookie-scale contracts. However, it’s unclear whether players signed to deals that extend beyond 2026 would be able to pro-rate their contracts based on the new CBA. It would make it more enticing then to wait to sign a new deal by 2026, which is why every WNBA player who isn’t currently on a rookie contract is set to be a free agent next offseason.
A 2025 draft lottery pick will receive a four-year, $348,198 contract, per Spotrac, which amounts to an average annual value of around $87,000.
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