NCAA to be investigated by West Virginia after WVU left out of tournament

• The governor of West Virginia has called for an investigation into the NCAA selection committee. It comes after the Mountaineers were left out of the tournament, and the aim is to make the process “transparent.”
• Gov. Patrick Morrisey called the Mountaineers’ exclusion from the tournament a “travesty of justice.”
• The committee chose North Carolina as the final team to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.

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The NCAA selection committee released their March Madness bracket, but the governor of West Virginia is not happy about his state’s team being left out. Gov. Patrick Morrisey, R, held a press conference Monday, March 17, to call for an investigation into the selection process.

Why is Gov. Morrisey calling for an investigation?

Gov. Morrisey called the omission of the West Virginia Mountaineers “a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest levels.” He pointed to the fact that the NCAA selection committee chairperson, Bubba Cunningham, is the athletic director at the University of North Carolina.

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The final team chosen for the 68-team tournament was North Carolina, which begins in earnest on Thursday, March 20. The Tar Heels will take on San Diego State in the “play-in” round Tuesday, March 18. A majority of media pundits and college basketball experts feel that West Virginia should have been in the tournament, according to the governor.

Choosing the field is a subjective process using wins, losses and other data from the regular season. The bid process comes down to how the committee views each team’s resume. Neither Indiana nor West Virginia had as many overall wins as North Carolina. However, they did have more wins over “Quad 1” teams.

Quad 1 teams rank in the top 75, and where those wins happen is a major factor in making decisions. North Carolina had a 1-12 record in that Quad 1 category. Indiana was 4-13 and West Virginia was 6-10.

How did the committee try to avoid a conflict of interest?

The committee’s metrics and criteria are uniform and published online. The entire committee also votes on the decisions. When questioned about North Carolina’s bid on Sunday, March 16’s NCAA Selection Show on CBS, Cunningham deferred to the vice chair of the committee, Keith Gill.

“As the vice chair, I managed all of the conversations we had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few,” Gill said. “Our policies require the athletic director of any school to recuse themselves and actually leave the room for those discussions, and they’re not allowed to participate in any vote as well; we followed those.”

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What’s the next step in the state’s response?

However, Gov. Morrisey says that’s not good enough. He’s directed Attorney General J.B. McCuskey to investigate the NCAA to ensure “transparency” in the process.

“Given the major event that the tournament has become and the massive amount of money associated with it, all fans deserve to know how the selection committee makes its choices,” McCuskey said. “The selection committee of the past is antiquated, and it is time for change, to lead with data-driven results and transparency. At the end of the day, it’s a billion-dollar business that involves NIL (name, image and likeness payments), it involves a lifetime’s worth of work for a ton of student athletes who are, this would have been the pinnacle of their career.”

Gov. Morrisey said it is “premature” to talk about litigation. He says the state needs answers by working collaboratively with the NCAA.