With the Tennessee Titans widely expected to take Miami quarterback Cam Ward with the No. 1 overall pick, all eyes are on what the Cleveland Browns will do with the draft’s No. 2 selection.

While ESPN’s Adam Schefter acknowledged the Browns ‘might’ take Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter with the second pick, Cleveland appears to be focusing elsewhere with the selection.

‘I believe Travis Hunter is the more likely pick at [No.] 2 today,’ Schefter said in a Monday episode of his self-titled podcast.

Hunter is considered by some to be the best overall player in the 2025 NFL draft class. The two-way star played both at receiver and cornerback for Colorado and won the Heisman after posting 96 catches, 1,258 receiving yards, 15 receiving touchdowns, 36 tackles and four interceptions during his final season with the Buffaloes.

Schefter noted the Browns’ seeming preference for Hunter stemmed largely from two factors. The first?

‘The Cleveland Browns watched [Hunter] on Friday at his pro day and they saw somebody who could move like nobody else,’ Schefter explained.

Additionally, Hunter would bring the Browns ‘star power’ at receiver, which Schefter believes would be his top position should the 21-year-old land in Cleveland.

‘I think he could play two ways for them, but I think they may think of him more as a receiver than a cornerback,’ Schefter detailed.

Schefter also noted that the Browns’ preferences for the No. 2 overall pick has shifted throughout the draft process. Originally, Cleveland had planned to use it on a quarterback. However, the prospect the team wanted isn’t expected to be on the board with the selection.

‘They wanted Cam Ward,’ Schefter said. ‘Cam Ward isn’t going to be there at No. 2.’

As such, Schefter cautioned against writing the Hunter pick in pen with more than two weeks left until the draft officially begins.

‘Who knows if and when it will shift again before the draft,’ Schefter said of Cleveland’s strategy with the No. 2 pick.

But for now, it’s looking like Hunter may be the first non-quarterback off the board in 2025.

All the NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter. Check out the latest edition: Titans seem to have clear choice at No. 1.

Brian Callahan watched virtually every single snap that Cam Ward played in five seasons on the college level that have allowed the big-play quarterback to perhaps catapult to the top of the NFL Draft.

The big takeaway? Consistency.

“It’s been cool to see that real progression to where he’s at now, from where he came from,” Callahan, the second-year Tennessee Titans coach, said during the NFL league meetings last week.

Ward started his college career on the FCS level at Incarnate Word. After two seasons at Washington State, he marked his spot on the map for the upcoming draft with a banner season at the University of Miami (Fla.).

“He’s made a lot of really impressive improvements over his career so far,” Callahan said.

The Titans have yet to declare whether they will select Ward with the top pick overall on April 24, but at this point — barring a blockbuster trade — it would be considered a stunner to many draft experts if they don’t.

Perhaps another sign came over the weekend when the Titans and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders mutually agreed to cancel a private workout. The Titans sent a large contingent to Boulder, Colorado, to attend the showcase on Friday that featured Sanders and Heisman Trophy-winning two-way prospect Travis Hunter, Jr., yet the absence of a follow-up private workout with Sanders could be interpreted as another sign that the team is leaning toward Ward.

If the Titans are still considering Sanders for the top pick, why wouldn’t they take the opportunity to gather more intel and develop an even better feel? After all, with the top pick, there’s no need for a smokescreen. And the team already had a private session with Ward on March 28.

In any event, Callahan insisted last that the team was committed to doing its due diligence over the final weeks of the pre-draft process.

“You turn over all the rocks,” Callahan said.

That has included his extensive dive into Ward (6-2, 219), who passed for 4.313 yards and 39 touchdowns in earning ACC Player of the Year honors and exploding into arguably the top quarterback in the draft. In 38 games over three seasons, he passed for 87 TDs.

The additional year in college provided a huge benefit. Had Ward, 22, entered the draft last year, he might have been rated on a tier below the six quarterbacks chosen among the top 12 picks in the first round.

Now he’s rated by many as the No. 1 pick overall. What an ascent.

“You saw the flashes at Washington State … then you saw the consistency,” Callahan told USA TODAY Sports. “I think that just comes from playing. I think that’s why these guys that have stayed in school longer and are playing four and five years, I think it’s helping them. Because they’re getting chances to get more reps and more opportunities. And you see their game sort of smooth out, become more consistent, become more pro-ready.

“You see that progression. You see his decision-making become more consistent. You see the accuracy become more consistent.”

Of course, the Titans might be banking in a big way for Ward’s progression to continue on the next level.

Reseed the playoffs? It’s still on the table

The proposal to ban the “tush push” wasn’t the only proposal NFL owners tabled during their meetings last week. After extensive discussion of what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called a “very healthy proposal” by the Detroit Lions, the prospect of reseeding the playoffs based on regular-season records remains open for debate.

As it stands now — and has for many years — winning the division crown guarantees a home playoff game. Had Detroit’s proposal been applied for last season’s playoffs, three division winners — Tampa Bay, the Los Angeles Rams and Houston — would have hit the road while wild-card entrants Minnesota, Washington and the Los Angeles Chargers hosted first-round games.

The topic has been broached in the past, but the traditional view has maintained that winning a division title should mean something — as in a home game.

Maybe this is the solution: Reseed after the first round. That way, the division winners still earn a home playoff game and a wild-card team might still earn the right to host a conference title game…if, of course, they can knock off a division winner along the way.

McVay: I’m no hater

Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay wanted to make something clear as he outlined his reasons for disapproving of the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature “tush push” play.

“I’m not in favor of it, but I also know that I sound like a hater because they’ve done it better than anybody else,” McVay said.

No, he’s no fan of the optics of the play and has concerns about injury risks.

But the thought that the movement to scrap the play is rooted in competitive jealousy?

Of course not.

Follow Jarrett Bell on social media: @JarrettBell

Vladimir Guerrero will be a Toronto Blue Jay for life, essentially. And agreeing to the game’s second-largest contract is proof there’s a dance partner for almost everyone in Major League Baseball.

Guerrero’s 14-year, deferral-free $500 million extension trails only the great Juan Soto’s $765 million deal in value. It stops shy of Shohei Ohtani’s nice round number of $700 million, but Guerrero will see all the money before he’s on the wrong side of 40.

And it ends a long-running staring contest between franchise and player that intensified when the sides could not come to an agreement by the beginning of spring training.

While extensions have been doled out like so many Oprah studio gifts since Opening Day, Guerrero’s is one of one. As is he – which the Blue Jays were wise to realize.

Young money

At 26, Guerrero was bound for free agency at that magic age that equals unprecedented riches. Think Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and, yes, Soto, all reaping the benefits of being teenage or 20-ish prodigies who hit the market before their ages can be used against them.

At first glance, Guerrero falls just shy of those sluggers who all reset the contract bar in various meaningful fashions.

He’s had just one MVP-caliber season, a 2021 tour de force when he hit 48 home runs, amassed 6.5 WAR and only missed joining his Hall of Fame father in the MVP club because Ohtani existed.

The doomsayer might note that that season was effectively canceled out by a 2023 campaign during which Guerrero’s homers shrank to 26 and his OPS to .788, closer to league average than generational.

But a series of related events followed that shot Guerrero into the $500 million club.

First, Ohtani said thanks, but no thanks to the Blue Jays’ cross-continental pitch. And then MVP Vlad returned, hitting 30 homers and pushing his OPS back up to .940, his 167 adjusted mark matching his 2021 output – paired with just 96 strikeouts, a power-hitting savant by today’s standards.

And when the Jays’ bid for Soto resulted in another bridesmaid’s bouquet and Soto resetting the global contract market? Toronto had no choice but to come to Vladdy.

He handled it with the conviction and steadiness and security one might expect from a second-generation superstar. No, Guerrero said, he wasn’t seeking Soto money. And no, the Blue Jays hadn’t come particularly close in their offer.

When Blue Jays brass responded with some actuarial pablum about shared risk and sustainability and the like, Vlad looked like a goner. It made for great spring training drama, at the least.

Yet to both sides’ credit, the dialogue continued. Vlad held his ground; the Blue Jays realized the cost of a superstar to build their team and media empire around wasn’t about to go down.

‘Dry powder:’ Vlad remains in Toronto

And so it got done, its imminence first reported by Mike Rodriguez. And almost as important for the industry: Vlad won’t be a Yankee or a Red Sox or a Met.

Not that it would’ve mattered, anyway, but narratives have a way of spinning out of control. And the notion that two to four coastal elite franchises control all the talent – especially now that the Red Sox have woken up – was closer to becoming gospel as the collective bargaining agreement draws nearer to its December 2026 expiration.

Yet the Guerrero pact shows that the vast majority of teams, and all the players, enjoy a wide range of freedom. Freedom to say no to a contract extension, or re-up for life.

Freedom to use some of the “dry powder” that franchises possess toward one asset that fans know and love – or to hang onto for another day.

Everyone’s different, exemplified by Jackson Merrill’s decision to accept a nine-year, $135 million extension from San Diego as a 21-year-old rather than bide his time and hit free agency himself at that magic age of 26. Or the Red Sox guaranteeing Kristian Campbell at least $60 million less than a week into his career – and for Campbell to take that money in the bank and accept security.

Naturally, the lower-revenue clubs may struggle to retain stars a little more. Yet so many have scarcely tried, and come nowhere near leveraging their greatest resource – talent – to both build a fan base and buttress their franchise value. (If you’re scoring at home, the Paul Skenes Doomsday Clock in Pittsburgh has not quite five years remaining).

But deadlines can be fake. MLB and the MLB Players’ Association will prove that many times during their pre- and post-lockout posturing. So, too, was Vladdy’s spring training line in the sand.

Turns out there was will, and a way, and Blue Jays fans will be better off for it.

Then Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin broke it Sunday.

‘They say records are meant to be broken, but I’m not sure who’s going to get more goals than that,’ Gretzky said during Sunday’s on-ice ceremony.

Before answering whether anyone can top Ovechkin, the big question is what his final total will be. Ovechkin has five games left this season unless the Capitals decide to rest him some before the playoffs. He has another season left on his contract.

If he retires after 2025-26 at age 40, he could end up with more than 930 goals. If he signs an extension, that figure will be even higher, a nearly impossible number to beat.

Here’s who might have an outside chance to pass him:

Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs

He’s the most obvious candidate because he already has two 60-goal seasons to Ovechkin’s one. He’s a pure scorer with four goals in his NHL debut and 398 goals in 623 games. Ovechkin needed 634 to reach 400 goals. He’s averaging 0.64 goals a game in his career to Ovechkin’s 0.60.

Matthews is 27 and potentially has many years left in his career. If he can maintain his current scoring pace and plays 1,500 games, he’d top 950 goals.

But that’s a big if. Matthews missed a total of 34 games over his second and third NHL seasons. He has been out on two occasions this season with a nagging injury, costing him 15 games. He has dropped from 69 goals to 30.

One of Ovechkin’s strengths is his durability. Matthews needs to stay healthy.

Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers

He has developed into a regular 50-goal scorer and has signed an eight-year extension that makes him the NHL’s highest-paid player. If Connor McDavid also commits long-term in Edmonton. there’s the potential for many more goals. Draisaitl is about to hit 400 goals and like Ovechkin, he’s hard to stop on a one-timer from the faceoff circle (the right one, in his case).

The issue is Draisaitl, 29, didn’t become a 50-goal scorer until his fifth season. He has played 790 games, taking more time to approach 400 than Ovechkin and Matthews.

David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins

Pastrnak, 28, has a 61-goal season and four 40-goal seasons. But he’s 12 goals from 400 and has played 752 games. And can he keep up the numbers with the Bruins retooling?

Gavin McKenna, junior hockey

The Medicine Hat Tigers winger is the likely No. 1 pick of the 2026 NHL draft. He had 34 goals last season and 41 this season at age 17. He has a 45-game point streak and is projected as a generational player. He has another year left in the Western Hockey League and at the world junior hockey championship to build up his game. He’s more of a playmaker but can score.

But it’s always difficult to assess how junior stardom translates to NHL stardom, especially since players are drafted by a team near the bottom of the league and don’t have a lot of early support.

Young player TBA

Don’t forget that Ovechkin was 13 when Gretzky retired. One thing to watch is domination at the world junior championships. Ovechkin had 18 goals in 18 games over three tournaments.

Those highs are a long way from the lows he experienced only a few years earlier.

In Episode 4 of the Netflix documentary, ‘The Clubhouse,’ Duran reveals that as a rookie in 2022, he was struggling so badly, he attempted suicide.

‘I got to the point where I was sitting in my room, I had my rifle and I had a bullet, and I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, but nothing happened,’ Duran said in the latest espiode, which will be released on Tuesday.

“To this day, I think God just didn’t let me take my own life because I seriously don’t know why it didn’t go off. But I took it as a sign of like, ‘Alright, I might have to be here for a reason.”

Duran, 28, has been outspoken in the past about his struggles with mental health.

In recognition of all he’s been through, Duran writes ‘Still Alive’ on his wristbands before every game. Those words provided the title for the Netflix series’ new episode, which focuses on Duran’s journey.

In a statement to local Red Sox reporters, team president and CEO Sam Kennedy commended Duran for his openness about the importance of mental health.

“Jarren’s decision to share his story is an act of courage that reaches far beyond baseball,” Kennedy said according to MassLive. “By opening up, he’s showing others who may be struggling that they’re not alone and that asking for help isn’t just okay, it’s essential.’

If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) any time day or night, or chat online.

Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they dial 741741.

Dan Quinn showed up to the 2024 NFL combine with multiple objectives – to evaluate that draft class’ prospects but also to recruit. As he built his staff ahead of his first season with the Washington Commanders, he wanted to leave Indianapolis with another name on the coaches’ roster. 

The target was a quarterback who had been on the Detroit Lions’ practice squad a year prior: David Blough, who was transitioning into coaching and had more than one team vying for his services. 

Blough ultimately signed up to be the Commanders’ assistant quarterbacks coach and was vital to Jayden Daniels’ historic rookie season after Washington selected him No. 2 overall. He’s also part of a trend that is becoming more common across the league. 

To develop a young quarterback – the most important investment in perhaps all of professional sports – having a young quarterbacks coach (or assistant quarterbacks coach) can go a long way. 

“We have great belief in him,” Quinn said at the 2025 combine of Blough. “This is a coach who you would not know this is his first year in coaching.” 

Of the 16 coaches with “assistant quarterbacks coach” in their titles during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the average age at the start of the season they were hired was 31.25 years old, according to USA TODAY Sports’ coaching database. Moreover, the upward mobility of coaches is closely tied to the quarterback position. Liam Coen (Jacksonville Jaguars), Kevin Stefanski (Cleveland Brown), Dave Canales (Carolina Panthers), Zac Taylor (Cincinnati Bengals), Ben Johnson (Chicago Bears) all held the title at one point throughout their respective coaching journeys. Zac Robinson (Atlanta Falcons) and Grant Udinkski (Jaguars), two current coordinators, also did. Of the 31 offensive coordinators in the league last year, 26 either passed through the quarterback room or previously held the title of “passing game coordinator.” 

Daniels credited Blough with drawing up the play that led to the game-winning touchdown he threw to Zach Ertz in a comeback victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 16. Blough and Daniels also have a standing, competitive game of “P-I-G” – throwing a ball from varying distances into one of three separate pouches carved into a net from varying distances – during the special teams portion of practices that can become heated. 

“He brings a lot,” Daniels said of Blough last December. “I mean, just a guy that’s recently just got out of football has been around…bringing different knowledge of how he’s seen the game, how he’s seen (veteran quarterbacks) prepare day in and day out, so he is very knowledgeable. You can go ahead and talk to him about anything.”

Quinn said the Washington staff’s recruiting efforts have already proved worthwhile based on the 29-year-old’s first season in the building. 

“I thought (Blough) absolutely nailed it in year one,” Quinn said. “The fact we want him here, he wants to be here, we want to help him develop, he’s really going to be impactful for us moving forward. We’re pumped we have him.”

‘Highly recommended’

When Sean Payton took the Denver Broncos job two years ago, he hired Davis Webb, then just 28 years old, as his quarterbacks coach after Webb came to Payton “highly recommended.” In 2024, rookie Bo Nix – selected 12th overall as the sixth quarterback taken in the first round – finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. Webb was rewarded with the addition of “offensive pass game coordinator” to his job title.

One aspect Payton enjoys about Webb’s coaching is that he runs an organized meeting room. 

“He was tremendous on keeping things simple and knowing how to read certain plays and how to approach the game,” Payton said last year. “I think he’s very positive with these guys.

‘Davis brings energy, experience and almost like that wily veteran quarterback that’s in the room, which I think is a plus.” 

Jerrod Johnson was 35 when he was the Houston Texans’ quarterbacks coach during C.J. Stroud’s impressive rookie season in 2023, when he took home Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

Although he didn’t play due to a knee injury, Minnesota Vikings rookie J.J. McCarthy (taken 10th overall) spent hours of the night texting then-assistant quarterbacks coach Udinski, who worked under head coach Kevin O’Connell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown. Udinski, 29, will spend next season as the offensive coordinator for Jaguars first-year head coach Coen; there, they will be tied to former top pick Trevor Lawrence, 25. 

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell hired Udinski in 2022 as his chief of staff. He evolved into the assistant quarterbacks coach and assistant offensive coordinator to Wes Phillips. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, he mentored McCarthy and learned a lot from O’Connell about building an offense. 

“Seeing how you build an offense, seeing how you teach an offense and build that progression, and then most importantly, probably the quarterback position, how you develop that starting from the ground up, laying the foundation and scaffolding things in a true progression that allows those guys to learn and grow in an environment that maximizes their chance of success,” Udinksi said during his introductory news conference.

Although he will have a quarterbacks coach (Spencer Whipple, six years Udinksi’s senior) working for him now, Udinksi – and Coen – will have plenty of facetime with Lawrence. 

“The most exciting thing for me is the guy and the person as I’ve started to form this relationship, because like I said, the quarterback position is still played by a person,” Udinksi said. “It’s still a human being back there who’s got to stand back there and navigate tight pockets and hits and escape and deal with ten other guys in the huddle.” 

For the Falcons, who surprised many by choosing Michael Penix Jr. at No. 8 overall, ex-NFL quarterback T.J. Yates led the quarterbacks room with D.J. Williams as his assistant quarterbacks coach. Williams primarily worked with Penix while Yates and Kirk Cousins, the starter until the end of the year, spent time together. Entering this season, Williams, 32, is now the quarterbacks coach with Yates moving into the pass game coordinator role. From 2019-23, Williams – the son of Super Bowl-winning quarterback and Washington senior adviser Doug Williams – was an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints. 

“D.J. is absolutely awesome,” Yates said during Week 14 of last season. “He helps out with Mike a ton. He’s been an unbelievable help — it’s like having two quarterbacks coaches in the room with D.J. in there with all his knowledge he’s had from years in New Orleans with Drew Brees and stuff.”

A new path for Caleb Williams?

The job of putting the 2024 draft class’ top pick Caleb Williams’ trajectory back on track now falls to former Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett, 30. He spent two seasons under Ben Johnson, now the Bears’ head coach, as the assistant quarterback coach of the Lions while Jared Goff experienced a career revitalization. 

Blough spent three seasons in Detroit and crossed paths there with Johnson. In Washington, Blough works alongside Commanders quarterbacks coach Tavita Pritchard, 38, who is the lone holdover from the Ron Rivera-era in Washington. A selling point for the Commanders was offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals when Blough was a backup there. Kingsbury thought to himself “this guy would be a phenomenal coach.”

“His experience with the young quarterbacks, being so young and so recently a part of the game, that carries a lot of weight with those guys,” Kingsbury said during the season.  

Ashton Grant, a 29-year-old who spent two seasons as the assistant quarterbacks coach with the Browns, is now responsible for the development of 2024 third overall pick Drake Maye with the New England Patriots as the quarterbacks coach on Mike Vrabel’s new staff. 

According to USA TODAY Sports research, the average age for an NFL head coach plummeted from 53.4 years old in 2015 to 47.7 years old at the start of the 2024 season — the lowest mark in the NFL in at least 25 years. During this offseason’s hiring cycle, Coen, 39, Johnson, 38, and Moore, 36, were all named head coaches. The average age of the 30 quarterbacks coaches at the start of the 2024 season was 43 years old.

Other sub-40 quarterbacks coaches with NFL experience include Scott Tolzien (Dallas Cowboys) and Sean Mannion, who is stepping into that role for the Green Bay Packers following the retirement of 71-year-old Tom Clements. Turning 33 this month, Mannion is seven years older than Packers signal-caller Jordan Love. 

Mannion and Packers head coach Matt LaFleur crossed paths when Mannion was Goff’s backup with the Los Angeles Rams. Years later, Mannion told LaFleur his plan was to enter coaching once his stint on the Vikings’ practice squad ended that season. He had an interview lined up with the Bears when LaFleur made his pitch. 

“He showed me what he was going to present, and I told him, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good. I think you should come up to Green Bay right when you’re done with that interview,’” LaFleur said last year. “And I’m surprised that they let him out of the building. They tried to get him, but I guess we had more to offer. But we’re lucky to have him. I really do think this guy’s going to have a bright future for us and certainly in the coaching profession.”

What younger coaches may be lacking in terms of lines on a résumé they make up for with attitude, Coen said. 

“Hunger. Want to. Guys that are trying to prove it,” the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator said at the combine. “Guys that want to continue to ascend throughout the profession.’

Coen claimed not one coach he hired didn’t have another opportunity.

‘You have to go get them, and so now you’re recruiting against another coach and multiple other places, college, NFL, families, everything,” Coen said. “You have to sell. You’re back in recruiting mode.” 

As the Commanders and Broncos found out last year – and other organizations, especially those in flux behind center, could in the near future – it might be the most crucial pitch of the offseason.

TAMPA, Florida — Once again, it’s the people who should most want to promote the women’s game who are holding it back.

For all the strides it’s made since the great weight room debacle of 2021, the NCAA is still short-changing the women. A TV contract that undervalues the women’s NCAA tournament. A format that undersells the fanbase and does a disservice to the “student-athletes.”

How many more times do the women need to prove themselves before the NCAA gets this is not a passing fad?

“I don’t want to come across as somebody who is ungrateful or all that because I’ve benefited so much,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Saturday, a day before his Huskies won their 12th national title.

“But I do think that sometimes we are being held hostage by tradition. ‘This is the way we’ve always done it. It’s easy. It’s simple. It’s uncomplicated.’ But why? Why not go out there and look at what other people are doing and take their best practices?” Auriemma said. “Because it can make us money and it can put us at a higher profile.”

There is no question the NCAA is doing better by the women’s game than it was five years ago, finally assigning the tournament a monetary value and awarding teams “units” — financial compensation — for their participation.

But this is a low bar.

The NCAA could have sold the women’s tournament on its own last year, for far more than its current $65 million valuation. Instead, it agreed to a deal with ESPN that bundles women’s basketball with softball, volleyball, gymnastics, underwater basket weaving and any other championship there is.

Why? That’s an excellent question. The deal was signed before the boffo ratings for last year’s NCAA Tournament, when the women’s final outdrew the men for the first time. But interest and ratings were already trending upward, and the NCAA didn’t trust the women to keep it going.

And yet, ratings for the first two weekends of the women’s tournament were up 47% over 2023, the most accurate comp. The 4.1 million who turned in for UConn’s rout of UCLA in the Final Four on Friday night was down significantly from the Caitlin Clark era, but still the third-highest rated in the 30 years ESPN has been broadcasting the tournament.

Worse, the new deal is a long-term one, running through 2032. Now, you can look at the men’s TV deal and see that they’re both expiring in 2032 and wonder if the NCAA has a plan to package the tournaments together. But that’s no excuse for not giving the women their fair market value now.

“There are certain things that we need,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “Open up the negotiations for a new television deal would be nice. We need our own television deal so we can understand what our worth is.”

Speaking of worth, the NCAA has locked the women’s Final Four into basketball arenas through 2031 while the men will continue playing in domes. Watching a basketball game in a dome is a miserable experience, not ideal for players or fans. But when has that mattered?

On Sunday morning, the get-in price for a ticket to the women’s title game was $100 more than for the men’s championship. Yes, the Alamodome is bigger. A lot bigger. But that’s the point. The demand is there. Why not put the women’s Final Four in a dome, too, and at least see what happens?

Same for the regionals.

The NCAA went to a “super regional” format in 2023, hoping it would boost attendance and entice more cities to want to host. The format has some flaws — lack of enough practice venues, limited hotels for fans — but the biggest issue is the cities in which they’re held and the schedule.

Spokane, Washington, is lovely and does a great job of hosting NCAA events. Ditto for Birmingham, Alabama. But the tournament has outgrown cities of this size for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, and it needs to be accessible for more fans.

“What you’re saying when you have two regions is you don’t care if half the country can’t get to a game. Basically, that’s what you’re saying. But yeah, you want to grow the game. I mean, come on, it makes no sense,” Auriemma said. “If you ever had an administrator that ever coached or ever played in a Final Four or regional, and you realize what the limitations are in one gym with eight (teams), right? Yeah, but they don’t think that way. They don’t think that way.”

And you cannot expect women’s players to accept inconveniences that you do not ask of the men.

UConn played in the last Elite Eight game, with its win over USC in Spokane ending about 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday. The Huskies tipped off again about 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Friday. The last Elite Eight men’s game, meanwhile, wrapped up about 8 p.m. last Sunday and the first Final Four game wasn’t until 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Auburn, the last team in, just had to go from Atlanta to San Antonio, too. Not clear cross country like UConn did.

“One of the big differences in the way women’s basketball is run today and men’s basketball was run is that you have really true basketball people making basketball decisions on the men’s side,’ Auriemma said.

“This isn’t sour grapes, because I don’t give a godd— where we play, when we play, who we play, what town, because we’ve done it and we still end up here,’ he added. ‘So this isn’t about, you know, `Geno’s complaining.’ I’m not complaining about anything. I’m just telling you the student-athletes, their experience sucks compared to the men’s experience.’

Asked on Friday night about complaints from Auriemma and other high-profile coaches, NCAA president Charlie Baker said there isn’t much the organization can do because of its existing contracts.

‘(The women’s basketball committee) will do a download at the end of the tournament and discuss what they think makes the most sense. If they believe there’s an option that would create the same fan and student-athlete experience. I’m sure they’ll take it into consideration,’ Baker said.

They need to do more than that.

The Final Four is in Phoenix next year. Ask organizers to move it to State Farm Stadium. Ditto for 2028, when it’s in Indianapolis, another city with a dome. When the Final Four returns to the Alamodome in 2029, expanding capacity to what it will be for the men’s title game Monday night should be a no-brainer.

And you can’t tell me Jerry Jones wouldn’t throw open the doors to Jerry World when the Final Four returns to Dallas in 2031.

“We certainly have the players that can handle that profile and there’s going to be more of them coming along,” Auriemma said. “We don’t want to shortchange them. We don’t want to sell them short, you know?”

Change is hard, especially when there are decades of misogyny baked in. But if the people making decisions at the NCAA can’t see that they’re short-changing female athletes and themselves, they need to get out of the way and put someone in charge who does.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.