NCAA President Responds to Geno Auriemma After UConn HC's Criticism of March Madness Regional Format

After UConn head coach Geno Auriemma voiced his issues with the NCAA tournament regional format last week, NCAA president Charlie Baker pushed back.

Baker said that "it's hard to argue" that the regional format isn't working when looking at the numbers.

"If you look at all the data, the ticket data, the attendance data, the viewership data, it's all gone up dramatically over the past few years," Baker said, per ESPN's Andrea Adelson. "We talk to the teams, and the committee will go back and take a look at all the stuff that was raised around all of those issues and make decisions about what to do going forward.

"But it's pretty hard to argue when attendance is up, viewership is up, and ticket sales are up consistently year over year, that this formula isn't working. I understand the issue around the scheduling, and that's something I think the committee will take a very hard look at."

Auriemma cited scheduling issues for practices and games, among other issues, when discussing his problem with the current format.

"Well, I think the first question you'd have to ask is why did they go from four (sites) to two. What was the rationale?" he said. "If they can explain it legitimately and then prove that it works, then great. So what was the reason?"

It seems Baker is not interested in adjusting the format at the moment, but if there is one coach in college basketball that could influence such a drastic change, it'd be the 12-time champion, Auriemma.