How revenue sharing is changing the way UConn builds its schedule

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How revenue sharing is changing the way UConn builds its schedule

For the first time in a while, UConn was home for Thanksgiving. Instead of coaching his team in a tournament during the holiday, Geno Auriemma found himself watching the Manchester Road Race pass by his restaurant, Cafe Aura.

Over the last four seasons, the Huskies have spent every Thanksgiving on the road. In 2021 and 2024, they were in The Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis and Baha Mar Women’s Showcase, respectively. In 2022, they journeyed to Portland, Oregon for the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament. The following season, they went to the Cayman Islands Classic.

Pre-Covid, UConn had participated in the 2018 Paradise Jam in the US Virgin Islands, the 2017 PK80 in Portland as part of a larger West Coast swing and the 2014 Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida.

But this year, the Huskies didn’t have an event like that on the schedule by design. It wasn’t a one-off or a product of the Big East adding two extra games to the league slate, either. Instead, the program’s Thanksgiving trips are likely to become a relic of a bygone era.

“I don't know how you can add a trip to some place in today's environment. I don't know how you can do that unless all your expenses are paid for and there's money involved,” Auriemma explained on Friday. “So because of the changing world that has happened to college basketball, I think it's going to make these trips much more difficult in the future, unless they don't impact — except in a positive way — your financial situation.”

The coach is alluding to the impact of revenue sharing, which now allows schools to directly pay its athletes. According to CT Insider, UConn is using the full $20.5 million allowed under the new rules with at least every varsity athlete at the school receiving some money. Exactly how much of that goes to the women’s basketball program is unknown, though the Huskies are likely one of the nation’s top spenders given their talent level.

That money is also separate from name, image and likeness deals that the players get, too — such as Azzi Fudd’s Bose partnership or KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade’s appearance on attorney Brooke Goff’s billboard ads. Revenue sharing comes straight from the school.

That’s increased the financial demands on both the women’s basketball program and the athletic department as a whole. As such, UConn decided Thanksgiving tournaments aren’t worth the cost. The team trips to Europe every few years are set to go by the wayside, too.

“That goes the same for foreign trips too in the summer,” Auriemma said. “Unless you can find a way to do those trips at no cost or very little cost, I think those are going to be very difficult to maintain.”

Instead, UConn will use its brand and prestige to bolster the coffers by scheduling games in different parts of the country. The Huskies used the trip to Tampa earlier this week as a way to generate more revenue.

“We do have a lot of fundraising activities when we get down here on Monday,” Auriemma said last Friday. “A huge fan base for UConn sports and UConn women's basketball is in South Florida. So that's a big part of why we would go down here and why we chose to start a series with South Florida.”

They’ll do the same in Los Angeles when they take on USC later this month.

“We're going to USC and we have huge fundraising events lined up for all of our fans in California,” he said.

UConn has always made an effort to schedule teams in different parts of the country. In the last decade, the Huskies have played regular season games in three time zones and 27 different states. They’ll continue to do so, though they might cycle through opponents more frequently now.

“Can we keep doing that in the future? Yes, we can,” Auriemma said. “That may mean that some of the teams we're playing right now, maybe we'll have to skip a year or two here.”

Next season, the Huskies are set to travel to Louisville, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Florida State. Expect them to make regular trips down to the Sunshine State with Auriemma specifically mentioning Miami and the University of Florida as potential opponents for the future.

“Certainly, Florida is a big fan base for us,” he said.

Elsewhere, Auriemma expressed a willingness to set something up with Michigan. While the Wolverines are a program on the rise, UConn also has never played in the state before. That could be a new market to tap into.

“If there’s a chance we could play a home-and-home with them, I would love it,” Auriemma said about Michigan on his radio show. “We try to spread it around. You don’t want to play these same teams.”

As for other locations that could make sense, UConn last visited Texas in 2023-24 and hasn’t been to the Bay Area since 2018. For new frontiers, the Huskies could explore Atlanta, Missouri (for St. Louis and Kansas City), or somewhere out west like Colorado, Las Vegas or Seattle.

There’s plenty of options. UConn might be cutting out trips to the Caribbean and Europe to save money, but it’ll make up for it with more home-and-home series around the country.

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