Mar 27, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Team bench chairs with the March Madness Elite 8 and Sweet 16 logos at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
West Virginians don’t back down or go away quietly, and that was further proved evident Monday afternoon when West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey held a press conference alongside Attorney General JB McCuskey to announce their launch of an investigation into the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
This comes less than 24 hours after the West Virginia Mountaineers were shockingly excluded from the 2025 NCAA Tournament and passed up by North Carolina for the final spot in the 68-team field. With the chair of the committee, Bubba Cunningham, also serving as the athletic director at North Carolina, many feel there is some sort of corruption going on.
Governor Morrisey told reporters that West Virginians, and all Americans, deserve to have transparency in regard to the selection process. They are hoping the NCAA works collaboratively with them and supplies objective data to show why the Mountaineers were left out of the tournament.
“Last night, like many West Virginians, we sat down to watch the March Madness selection committee. Frankly, many of us were looking to see how WVU was going to be seeded in the tournament. Nearly every single sports fan, pundit, bracketologist, everyone had WVU has a shoo-in for the tournament.
“In fact, leading up to Selection Sunday, 111 out of the 111 bracketologists projected WVU to make the tournament. And for good reason. The selection committee for years has talked about the importance of Quad 1 wins. West Virginia had six Quad 1 wins and that was combined with an undefeated record against Quad 3 and Quad 4 opponents. Three wins against top 10 teams and the 24th toughest schedule in America. West Virginia deserved to be in the NCAA Tournament. This was a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest levels.
“Now who was the last team to get in to the tournament ahead of the Mountaineers? That would be the University of North Carolina. Now, let’s see how their resume stacks up. The Tar Heels went 1-12 in Quad 1 games and even had a Quad 3 loss and we keep hearing about the importance of these Quad 1 wins, but UNC couldn’t even get more than one. They have the 25th toughest schedule in America, right behind WVU.
“UNC had representation in the room during the selection process. Bubba Cunningham is the athletic director at UNC. He also happens to be the head of the tournament selection committee. It’s being reported by a number of outlets that Cunningham had a significant bonus incentive. At least $70k if they get into the tournament, arguably more if they advance with more incentives on the way. I want folks to let that sink in for just a minute. Of the 111 brackets that were projected pertaining to North Carolina, UNC was only in 27 of them. This stinks at the highest level.
“When pressed why the committee left WVU out, Bubba Cunningham, again the AD of the school that deprived WVU of a slot, blamed the injury of a WVU player being out, Tucker DeVries. But we know this doesn’t pass the smell test and I believe that WVU went 13-10 with DeVries outside the lineup and they still had huge victories against Kansas and Iowa State.
“Any way you slice it, this thing reeks of corruption. You know, we’ve been involved with dealing with the NCAA in the past. There are some watching right now that know I brought litigation against the NCAA with a number of my colleagues a few years ago. I know there were a lot of chants to free RaeQuan Battle, which is what we did when the NCAA rules for transfers was out of whack. It’s hard for me to put that aside right now, knowing West Virginia was out in front suing in 2023 and here we are…I don’t know what’s going on. Is this retribution? We’re going to have to get to the bottom of that.
“Today, I’m joined here with our attorney general. He’s the chief legal officer for the state. And I’ve asked Attorney General (JB) McCuskey to launch an investigation into the NCAA tournament selection committee to determine if any backyard deals, backroom deals, corruption, bribes, or any nefarious activity occurred during the selection process. I know that the attorney general and I are going to leave no stone unturned during this process. We need to get to the bottom of it. A lot of Americans count on the fact that there’s transparency and fairness when you’re dealing with selection. We’re going to get to the bottom of what happened. We want those objective criteria.”
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