Just one day after it was revealed that the West Virginia Mountaineers were left out of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey held a press conference to express his displeasure with the March Madness selection committee.
“West Virginia deserved to be in the NCAA tournament, ” Governor Morrisey said while standing at a podium that was adorned with a sign that read “National Corrupt Athletic Association” during his Monday press conference in Charleston, West Virginia. “This was a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest levels.”
There was a great amount of controversy surrounding the North Carolina Tar Heels, who made it into the tournament ahead of West Virginia. Governor Morrisey didn’t mince words when talking about his feelings regarding UNC’s selection.
“Now who was the last team to get into the tournament ahead of the Mountaineers? That would be the University of North Carolina,” he explained. “UNC had representation in the room during the selection process… Bubba Cunningham is the athletic director for UNC. He also happens to be the head of the tournament selection committee… This stinks at the highest level.”
For those wondering what will happen with this NCAA selection committee misfire, you should look no further than what happened to the flawed NCAA eligibility rules. In that case, I took them to court with my colleagues and we won. #NCAA #WVU #WestVirginia #MarchMadness
The…
— Patrick Morrisey (@MorriseyWV) March 17, 2025
The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings are the primary way that teams are assessed for the tournament. NET rankings are divided into four quadrants which are used to measure the quality of a team’s wins and losses based on the location of the game as well as their opponents’ NET ranking. This basically means that Quad One consists of the top 75 teams in the country.
West Virginia’s Quad One record was 6-10. However, UNC’s record against Quad One teams this season was 1-12.
“We keep hearing about the importance of these Quad One wins, but UNC couldn’t even get more than one,” Governor Morrisey said. “Any way you slice it, this thing reeks of corruption.”
He then added that the state of West Virginia will be taking legal action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
“Today, I’m joined here with our Attorney General. He’s the chief legal officer for the state, and I’ve asked Attorney General [John] 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,” Governor Morrisey said. “I know that the Attorney General and I are going to leave no stone unturned during this process.”
“I think a lot of Americans count on the fact that there’s transparency and that there’s fairness when dealing with selection. Those are basic things that all Americans deserve,” Governor Morrisey concluded. “We’re going to get to the bottom of what happened.”
