A day after West Virginia was excluded from the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament, West Virginia governor Patrick Morrisey announced the state is threatening to take legal action against the NCAA.
“Last night, like many West Virginians, we watched the March Madness selection committee … to see how WVU was going to be seeded in the tournament,” Morrissey, standing behind a podium with a sign that read “National Corrupt Athletic Association,” said Monday at a press conference. “Nearly every single sports fan, pundit, bracketologist, everyone had WVU as a shoo-in for the tournament. In fact, leading up to Selection Sunday, 111 of 111 bracketologists projected WVU to make the tournament.
“I’ve asked [West Virginia] attorney general [JB] McCuskey to launch an investigation into the NCAA Tournament selection committee to determine if any 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.”
[MORE: 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket here]
When asked if the state would file a lawsuit against the NCAA, Morrissey said that it was “too soon for litigation.”
“What we are asking for is a level of detail and a level of transparency, [a] level of accountability, so teams like West Virginia can plan in the future,” McCuskey said. “We need to know what they are looking for.
“We are hoping to work with the NCAA to find out what is the objective metric. If it isn’t an objective metric, and it’s purely subjective, how are we supposed to build a schedule, roster and a team to get into the NCAA Tournament prospectively? We’re super hopeful that the NCAA is going to work with us.”
Morrissey took particular issue with North Carolina’s inclusion in the 68-team field. UNC was the final team to receive an at-large bid, with some controversy surrounding its selection, as the athletic director Bubba Cunningham serves as the chairperson of the selection committee. Morrissey compared the résumés of the two schools, pointing out that the Mountaineers had more Quad 1 wins (six) than the Tar Heels (one), and they also had three top-10 wins.
“West Virginia deserved to be in the NCAA tournament,” Morrissey said. “This was a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest levels, and who was the last team to get into the tournament ahead of the Mountaineers? That would be the University of North Carolina.
“I want folks to let this sink in for just a minute: Of the 111 brackets that were projected pertaining to North Carolina, UNC was only in 27 of them,” Cunningham added. “This stinks at the highest level.”
Cunningham told CBS Sports that he recused himself from all conversations the committee had surrounding UNC, adding that he left the room. He also shared that the injury surrounding guard Tucker DeVries played a role in West Virginia’s tournament snub.
[Related: UNC sneaks into NCAA Tournament, Tar Heels AD assures he sat out of committee talks]
“We know this doesn’t pass the smell test,” Morrissey said of Cunningham’s comment about DeVries. “WVU, I believe, 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.”
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