The Arkansas Razorbacks took down the Vanderbilt Commodores 86-75 to win the SEC Tournament title game on Sunday afternoon in Nashville, TV. A few hours later, Arkansas learned on the March Madness Selection Show that it would face Hawaii on Thursday in Portland, OR, at 1:25 p.m. local time in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

On Monday, Arkansas head coach John Calipari joined Chris Russo on Mad Dog Sports Radio and voiced his frustration about conference tournament championships happening on Selection Sunday, especially while having a quick turnaround across the country to play in the NCAA Tournament.

After winning an SEC championship on Sunday @RazorbackMBB will turn around for a Thursday NCAA Tournament game on the other side of the country. @CoachCalArk joins @MadDogUnleashed and sounds off on the downside of conference tournaments concluding on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/yS1Ufp32Uw

— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) March 16, 2026

“The issue that we have is, do we continue to play on Sundays?” Calipari asked. “Why would you play on Sunday? If the two finalists are playing, us and Vandy, and all you’re going to do is hurt one, or whoever wins, they’re not moving at all anyway, but if they lose, they’re going to flip with the other guy.”

“Either they gotta fix that within the committee, or we gotta play on Saturday,” Calipari said. “Forget about lead-in to the [NCAA Tournament Selection Show]. We’ve gotta do what’s right for our young people. What you’re saying, that’s hard on me, but think about playing. We played three games in less than three days, we got back at two in the morning last night because of the weather, and we’ve got to leave at eight tomorrow to go play this game.”

“I’m not complaining, because we’re playing, we’re a four-seed, let’s go,” Calipari continued. “I’ve had stuff thrown at me before. You know that. And that kind of gets me going. You try to slow my team down by putting the barriers up, and alright, we’re putting our shoulder through that. But this is hard. This is going to be a hard run. Hawaii’s good. I’m not worried about anything else but them. I’m watching tape and trying to get focused.

“But let me ask you- how much can we really practice today? We’re showing tape. We can’t practice. We didn’t get in until two in the morning. We played three games in two and a half days. And we’ve got to play Thursday! We could’ve played in the evening. Nah, let’s make them play at one.”

“It’s not fair, [Calipari],” Russo responded. “I screamed about it last night.”

“Well, there are other teams in the same position,” Calipari said. “And you know what, no one wants to hear it. And I’ll use it. Believe me when I tell you. Don’t tell anybody, I will use it to our benefit.”

Sunday featured the championship game for the SEC, the Ivy League, the American Conference, the Atlantic 10, and the Big 10. The SEC Championship is the big event of the day for ESPN, while the Big Ten Championship has been the longtime lead-in to the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS. Saturday featured 11 conference championships, while Thursday and Friday had zero.

As always, these things usually come down to money for the conferences and television networks involved, rather than what’s necessarily in the best interest logistically for the teams and student-athletes.