Standing in front of a wooden dais with a teal sign attached to the front with the acronym “NCAA” – in this case meaning “National Corrupt Athletic Association” – West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Attorney General JB McCuskey announced during a joint news conference Monday that they would launch an investigation into the NCAA Tournament selection committee after the Mountaineers were snubbed from the 68-team field Sunday.
“Almost every sports fan, pundit and bracketologist had WVU as a tournament contender,” Governor Morrisey said, less than a day after the Mountaineers were the first team kicked out of the field. “This is a miscarriage of justice and theft at the highest levels.”
Governor Morrisey particularly took issue with the omission of West Virginia combined with from North Carolina inclusion and cited the potential conflict of interest in decision-making with UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham serving as chairman of the selection committee. He then discussed the merits of their respective resumes, discussing performance in various quadrants and strength of schedule.
“Now, who was the last team to make the tournament before the Mountaineers?” asked Governor Morrisey hypothetically. “That would be the University of North Carolina. Now let’s see how their resumes compare. The Tar Heels went 1-12 in Quad One games and even had a loss in Quad 3. And we keep hearing about how important those Quad 1 wins were, but UNC couldn’t even get more than one.
“They also had the 25th toughest schedule in America, just behind WVU,” he continued. “Now here’s something you may not know: UNC was represented in the room during the selection process. Let me repeat that. UNC was represented 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.”
CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander says it’s ‘crazy’ West Virginia didn’t make the NCAA Tournament
Chris Bengel
Governor Morrisey then asked JB McCuskey to launch an investigation into the selection committee to “determine whether any backroom deals, corruption, bribery or other nefarious activity” took place during the selection process.
Pressed for details on the investigation, Gov. Morrisey said it was unclear whether he planned to take legal action in the fight and stressed that he first wanted to see “objective criteria” for the tournament’s inclusion.
West Virginia was the first team out of the 68-team field revealed during Selection Sunday, while North Carolina was the last team to make the field.
UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham had to recuse himself from any conversations related to UNC’s NCAA Tournament inclusion. But the puzzling decision to locate UNC in West Virginia warranted closer inspection Sunday, and it didn’t hold up to scrutiny.
In particular, the committee stated that the availability of Tucker DeVries – who hadn’t played since December for West Virginia – was a discussed factor, as was UNC’s T-Rank (a Bart Torvik metric measuring efficiency) and position in WAB (Wins Above Bubble).
“It is my responsibility to work with the governor to ensure that this process is fair,” McCuskey said. “We earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. You can’t really argue otherwise.”
