| Year: | 2016 |
| Conference: | American Athletic Conference |
| Division: | I |
| Gender: | Women's |
| Teams: | 11 |
| Arena: | Mohegan Sun Arena |
| City: | Uncasville, Connecticut |
| Champions: | Connecticut |
| Titlecount: | 3rd |
| Coach: | Geno Auriemma |
| Coachcount: | 3rd |
| Mvp: | Breanna Stewart |
| Mvpteam: | Connecticut |
| Attendance: | 30,478 |
| Different Previous: | 2015 |
| Television: | ESPNU, ESPN2, ESPN3 |
The 2016 American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament was a tournament held March 4–7 in the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Connecticut won their third straight American Athletic Conference title by defeating South Florida and earn an automatic trip to the NCAA women's basketball tournament.
All the teams in the American Athletic Conference qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded based on conference record, and then a tiebreaker system was used. Teams seeded 6–11 played in the opening round, and teams seeded 1–5 received a bye to the quarterfinals.
| Seed | School | Conference | Overall | Tiebreaker | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connecticut ‡ | 18–0 | 29–0 | |||
| 2 | South Florida # | 14–4 | 21–8 | |||
| 3 | Temple # | 13–5 | 19–10 | |||
| 4 | Memphis # | 12–6 | 18–11 | |||
| 5 | Tulane # | 11–7 | 20–10 | |||
| 6 | Tulsa | 8–10 | 11–18 | |||
| 7 | SMU | 7–11 | 12–17 | |||
| 8 | East Carolina | 6–12 | 12–18 | |||
| 9 | Cincinnati | 4–14 | 8–21 | 0–1 vs. Tulane | ||
| 10 | UCF | 4–14 | 7–22 | 0–2 vs. Tulane | ||
| 11 | Houston | 2–16 | 6–23 | |||
| ‡ – American Athletic Conference regular season champions. # – Received a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Overall record are as of the end of the regular season. | ||||||
All tournament games are nationally televised on an ESPN network:
| Session | Game | Time* | Matchup# | Television | Attendance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round – Friday, March 4 | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 4:00 PM |
| ESPN3 | 4,480 | |
| 2 | 6:00 PM |
| ||||
| 3 | 8:00 PM |
| ||||
| Quarterfinals – Saturday, March 5 | ||||||
| 2 | 4 | 12:00 PM |
| ESPN3 | 7,033 | |
| 5 | 2:00 PM |
| ||||
| 3 | 6 | 6:00 PM |
| 5,071 | ||
| 7 | 8:00 PM |
| ||||
| Semifinals – Sunday, March 6 | ||||||
| 4 | 8 | 4:30 PM |
| ESPNU | 6,821 | |
| 9 | 6:30 PM |
| ||||
| Championship Game – Monday, March 7 | ||||||
| 5 | 10 | 7:00 PM |
| ESPN2 | 7,073 | |
| ||||||
Note: * denotes overtime