Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw wasn't thrilled when the NCAA women's tournament bracket was released Monday.
Her No. 1-seeded Irish were the latest among the nation's top teams to be put on course for an early round game on an opponent's home court. It's something that's been happening frequently since the tournament switched to predetermined sites a decade ago.
"I'm very disappointed that a No. 1 seed wasn't protected," McGraw said. "It makes the regular season seem like it doesn't matter. We earned the right to be a No. 1 seed. The way they had the designated sites is not a fair way to do it ... the top 16 teams need to host. We need to go back to the way that it was done before. But we've got to be able to win, no matter where we're playing."
This year, five of the top 12 seeds could potentially play a true road game in the second round. There isn't much that can be done to fix it for now, as women's basketball attendance isn't strong enough to support a move to neutral courts.
That means the Irish, Kentucky, California, Penn State and North Carolina could face home teams with a berth in the regional semifinals on the line.
Notre Dame was hoping to be sent to Columbus, Ohio -- the only one of the 16 sites that doesn't have a host team playing. Instead they will have to travel to Iowa City where a tough second round matchup with host Iowa could be looming.
"We tried to avoid it several different times by
The Irish are the only No. 1 seed that isn't hosting the first two rounds. They had played at home in three of the previous four NCAA tournaments. They wanted to host this year but, due to circumstances outside the women's basketball office, they missed the deadline to apply.
All top 16 teams hosted the first couple of rounds in the past, but that was ditched in 2003 and there are no plans to go back to it.
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