Due to the ongoing government shutdown, the UConn women’s basketball team will no longer open the 2025-26 season at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, ESPN Events announced Thursday.
The Huskies will still play their first game on Nov. 4 against Louisville with a 5:30 p.m. tipoff on ESPN as previously scheduled, but the teams will now face off at the U.S. Naval Academy’s Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Maryland.
The game will still be part of the Armed Forces Classic, established by ESPN Events in 2012 as part of the network’s annual America’s Heroes: Salute to Veteran’s initiative around Veteran’s Day. UConn and Louisville are the first women’s teams to play a game in the classic, which has been a men’s basketball event since it debuted. This will also be the first time the Naval Academy has hosted the event.
“For more than a decade, this event has celebrated the lives and contributions of our military, and we’re appreciative of the Naval Academy for helping provide a first-class venue for this first-ever women’s college basketball matchup that will showcase perennial powers Louisville and UConn,” ESPN Events Vice President Clint Overby said in a statement.
The game had to be relocated because the Ramstein Air Base is operating at significantly reduced capacity amid the shutdown, which began on Oct. 1 when Congress was unable to pass a bill funding federal government services before the end of the fiscal year.
The government shutdown is in its fourth week and is currently the second-longest in American history. It is just the fourth shutdown that has ever lasted longer than seven days. The longest shutdown was in 2018-19 and lasted 35 days. If a deal is not reached by date of the Huskies’ season opener, the current shutdown would tie that record.
The Armed Forces Classic has been played nine times, twice previously on the Ramstein Air Base in 2012 and 2017. The UConn men’s team played in the inaugural game in 2012, upsetting No. 14 Michigan State as an unranked squad in Kevin Ollie’s first season. Games have also been held over the last decade on various bases both domestic (California, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas) and international (Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico).
UConn and Louisville have a longstanding rivalry dating back to the Cardinals’ years in the Big East before they joined the ACC in 2014. The Huskies have historically dominated the series with a 20-3 record all-time against Louisville, but they have lost twice to the Cardinals since 2019 — most recently at Mohegan Sun Arena in Dec. 2021. UConn routed Louisville 85-52 in last year’s meeting at Barclays Center in Brooklyn as part of the Women’s Champions Classic. Both teams were ranked in this year’s preseason AP poll, UConn at No. 1 as the defending national champions and Louisville at No. 20.
