The Michigan Women's Basketball team faced a nightmare travel day when they were returning back to Ann Arbor after an overtime loss to the University of Kansas. 

The University of Michigan faced the Jayhawks at USC's home court: the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California. The tip-off was at 11 am PDT on Saturday, March 23. After the devastating loss, the basketball team, cheerleaders, and school band were scheduled to take a charter flight back home.

According to a TikTok made by junior guard Laila Phelia, Michigan women's basketball arrived at the airport around 5 pm and had to sit around for five hours only to be told that they would have to go back to their hotel and fly out the next day. 

The Associated Press reported that due to weather conditions and crew shortages, the flight was delayed and the team had to wait for another captain to get in from Texas. The basketball team had to wait outside for three hours before being able to start going through security. Once they finally boarded at 8:30 pm, they sat on the plane for another hour and a half before finding out that the new captain was “over his allotted flight time for the day.” 

Michigan was originally told that the captain and crew would be able to extend their hours, but the captain was too fatigued to make the journey. The flight was ultimately canceled. 

To make things even worse, the buses that had brought the team to the airport had left the team stranded. In her TikTok, Phelia and her teammates state that the NCAA was sending cars to them and bringing them back to their hotel. However, they then realize that this wasn't the case and the players had to find their own way back to the hotel through Uber. 

The team members eventually returned to the hotel while the staff waited for the buses to get back to the airport so that they could bring all of the luggage to the hotel. 

The entire team returned to Ann Arbor around 7 pm EDT. 

The NCAA can earn up to 85% of its yearly revenue on March Madness alone, according to Yahoo Finance. Investopedia reported that the NCAA typically brings in about $1 billion from March Madness. 

The players don't get a single cent of this money. By going to the tournament, teams' flights and accommodations are covered, but these athletes have generated billions of dollars playing their sport, and they don't get anything in return. 

The Michigan basketball team got back on Sunday night and had to be at their 8 am classes the next day. Seems like the NCAA could provide them with an easy flight home at the very least.