(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Watching some of the women's basketball tournament over the weekend, it became apparent to me that it's UConn's tournament to lose.
While UConn's domination probably will make this argument a moot point, the home court advantage that some lower seeds get is, to put it bluntly, absolutely ridiculous.
I checked out a game between No. 2-seeded Auburn and No. 7 Rutgers. For whatever reason, Rutgers was the home team. Huh?
Well, after getting drubbed by Rutgers by 28 points, if I'm Auburn coach Nell Fortner, I'm sending a letter to the NCAA that looks like this:
"Hello there, I'm Coach Fortner from Auburn and I've got a question for you. My team just won 30 games and we were granted a well-deserved No. 2 seed. Why the hell did we have to travel to Piscataway, NJ, to play a team on their home floor?"
Now, if I were a part of the Duke program, I'm telling Auburn to suck it up. Hell, we earned a No. 1 seed yet we had to travel to Michigan State and play at a place where our coach is not liked very well. She was booed pretty loud in Duke's 63-49 loss Tuesday night.
Joanne P. McCallie, Duke's coach, was at Michigan State for seven seasons. She left the Spartans after the 2005 season for the Blue Devils.
I guess the tournament lacks drama.
Granted, you should be able to win on the road, but a team that gets a seven-seed should never be HOSTING a tournament game. This, for the right to go to the Sweet 16. Mmm, mmm, mmm.
The NCAA must be worried about attendance or how good the facilities look. It must be worried about ratings or revenue. I don't know, but I think it's pretty unfair for top seeds to be playing at somebody else's gym in a do-or-die game.
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