Auriemma: Title IX 'pretty much out the window'

FORT WORTH, Texas -- UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma on Thursday said Title IX legislation, in practice, is "pretty much out the window. ... I think most of the NCAA laws have gone out the window."

Auriemma, who is in his 41st year of coaching the Huskies and is four wins away from his 13th national title, was asked whether women's sports, considering its growth, is in a place where it can do without Title IX.

"It appears to me that at the big conferences level, I think Title IX legislation is probably over," Auriemma said as his team prepared for Friday's Sweet 16 matchup against North Carolina. "I don't know that when you say we're allocating $20.5 million [per school in revenue sharing payouts] that they're going, 'Yeah, well, women's basketball is going to get the same amount as football and men's basketball.'

"I'm sure there's some schools that are trying really hard to stay with that in terms of numbers, scholarship opportunities for people, but when it comes time for funding and putting money into those programs that would make you believe that it's the same, I don't see that as much anymore as I did in the beginning."

Title IX was a landmark piece of legislation passed in 1972 prohibiting discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities, including athletics, for institutions receiving federal funding.

But the college sports landscape has transformed dramatically, especially since 2021, when athletes were finally permitted to be compensated monetarily for their name, image and likeness.

As of last year, schools are now able to directly pay athletes. But President Donald Trump's administration rescinded guidance from the Biden-era Department of Education that had stated that schools must equitably distribute direct payments to male and female athletes.

The reversal by the Trump administration has prompted concerns that athletic departments are channeling that money to revenue-rich sports such as football and men's basketball at the expense of women's and Olympic sports. There have been multiple appeals arguing that the determination violates Title IX, but they are still pending resolution.

"Unfortunately, [more equity] is going to have to be done through the way the conference commissioners and the way the athletic directors decide that they want to keep funding this sport," Auriemma said. "That's the only way."

Auriemma also spoke on several other big-picture topics. He reiterated his distaste for two-site regionals in the women's college game -- a format that will be in place for at least five more seasons -- and said the sport shouldn't feel as if it has to move to neutral sites for the first two rounds of the tournament.

"If you would tell me that we could guarantee that every first- and second-round game, no matter where we played, it would be sold out, then I would say let's do it," Auriemma said, pointing to how most other college sports also have schools host postseason competition. "But the reality is they wouldn't be unless you have them at certain places."

He was also asked about comments by Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack after the Orange's second-round loss to the Huskies in Storrs, in which she bemoaned her teams perpetually being placed in UConn's subregional.

"I understand where she's coming from," Auriemma said. "I've not been on any of those committees, but you keep falling in the 8-9 game, 7-8-9 game, you're going to end up getting a 1- or 2-seed most of the time. Why you keep getting the same [one]? That's a question that I don't have the answer to."