Just before the UConn Huskies faced the Oklahoma Sooners in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma ripped into the NCAA for the women's tournament schedule being more strenuous than the men's.
"Whoever came up with this Super Regional stuff ruined the game. Half the country has no chance to get to a game in person. But, you're making billions off of TV," Auriemma said. "Well, actually, you're not – that would be the men's tournament."
He went as far as to say that whoever doesn't get to host the first few rounds doesn't even stand a chance in the postseason with how much traveling they have to do, insinuating that half of the country doesn't stand a chance.
"There's a lot of issues that they need to fix, and we could get our a-- beat tomorrow, and that wouldn't change my feelings," Auriemma concluded.
"Whoever came up with this Super Regional stuff ruined the game. Half the country has no chance to get to a game in-person. But, you're making billions off of TV. Well, actually, you're not - that would be the mens tournament. There's a lot of issues..."
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) March 28, 2025
- Geno Auriemma pic.twitter.com/jPErAFYBha
For contact, the Huskies are a No. 2 seed in this year's tournament, so they actually hosted one of the locations for the first two rounds. However, Auriemma was acknowledging how screwed over a team like the Sooners could be when they have to travel so far in such a short amount of time as the No. 5 seed.
Auriemma and the Huskies are far from victims of the schedule, but as one of the biggest figureheads in the sport, UConn's head coach was in the right to express his distaste for the Super Regional set up that the women's game has, while the men's game doesn't do anything like that.