NCAA and ESPN did TCU and Fort Worth so wrong with ridiculous tipoff time
The reward that the NCAA and ESPN delivered to TCU and Fort Worth was a nice slap in the face with a bowl full of ripped-up losing lottery tickets.
For winning the Big 12 regular-season title for the second consecutive year, the TCU women’s basketball team was not only not put in the Fort Worth region for the potential Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games at Dickies Arena, but also handed a pair of start times for their opening round games that resulted in half-empty arenas.
On Sunday, TCU hosted the University of Washington in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Schollmaier Arena in an exciting game that ended at 11:16 p.m. That’s Central time.
That’s ridiculous.
According to NCAA Tournament officials, TCU’s NCAA round of 32 tournament overtime win over Washington drew about 4,300 fans in an arena that seats roughly 6,800. That should not happen for a home second-round NCAA Tournament game, and this entirely falls on the NCAA and broadcast warden — sorry, partner — ESPN.
When TCU defeated Louisville in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in Fort Worth, the announced attendance was 7,494. Explaining this dramatic drop is not complicated.
Nine-Oh-Five. A 9:05 p.m. Central time tipoff is a sports crime.
“If this was at any [other] time — 2, 4, 6 — it’s a sellout,” TCU coach Mark Campbell said. “For a late-night tip, to have that crowd and energy ... Fort Worth has been incredible. It’s why we have the [nation’s] longest home court winning streak [44 games].
“Yes, I wish it was earlier, but we’re moving on to the Sweet 16, so I’m good with it.”
This was followed by a start time for TCU’s first-round game of 11 a.m. on Friday, a game that drew closer to 4,000.
‘Kinda crazy’ situation
For a sport that needs all the help it can get, women’s basketball too often makes the NHL look like the NFL.
Women’s basketball coaches and administrators refuse to accept that their product is not men’s basketball, and while they play the same game, there are still differences. Whatever the reason, you can’t do what the NCAA/ESPN did to TCU on Sunday night.
“Getting older fans out here at 9 p.m. on Sunday is kinda crazy,” TCU guard Olivia Miles said after the game.
Call this an accurate joke. Women’s basketball relies on young families, and retirees, to fill up seats. A 9 p.m. tip runs off both demographics. TCU was lucky that its students were back from spring break.
Sunday’s tip time at TCU was the result of a bracket where the only viable “late” game for TV happened to be in the Central time zone.
“There’s no West Coast teams hosting [on Sunday],” Campbell said. “So you’re kind of all jammed up on this side of the country. We got the short end of the stick. It is what it is. I will never complain about it. And we still had a great environment, great crowd.”
A great environment and great crowd that should have been better.
Marta Suarez has 8 a.m. class
TCU players Taylor Bigby, Marta Suarez and Miles and Campbell met with the media starting at 11:48 p.m. We all know that the power conference NCAA “student-athlete” is a charade for a lot of the players, but some of these kids do have class on Monday morning.
“I have an 8 a.m. class [Monday],” Suarez said. “If Dr. Lemon is watching this, text me.”
Scheduling these big tournaments is always a mess, and sometimes there is no way around an unfortunate tip time. In the case of the men’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday, the evening slate was crammed with six games in a six-hour stretch on four networks.
And what the NCAA and ESPN did to TCU and Washington on Sunday night is a disservice to the teams, the game and the host institution.
You can’t schedule a women’s basketball game on Sunday at 9 p.m.
This story was originally published March 23, 2026 at 1:15 AM.
