Conflict of Interest: Selection Committee Chairman's program makes Big Dance while WVU is out

West Virginia was left out of the NCAA Tournament field in 2025.

After closing the regular season with consecutive victories, it was all but a foregone conclusion that West Virginia would make the field of 68. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and others predicted that WVU was an NCAA Tournament lock heading into conference tournament play. Despite a bad loss to Colorado in their first action in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, WVU was still predicted to be in the field, and rather comfortably.

As a matter of fact, the Bracket Matrix breakdown saw WVU in the field in 111 out of 111 brackets. Yet, on Selection Sunday, West Virginia was shockingly left out of the tournament field. They were officially the first team left off of the bracket, leading to tremendous heartbreak in and around the WVU men’s basketball program. 

One interesting component of this is that the selection committee is headed by Bubba Cunningham. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you, it will after this next sentence. Bubba Cunningham serves as the Athletic Director at the University of North Carolina -- yes, the same University of North Carolina that landed as the last team in the NCAA Tournament field.

Meanwhile, West Virginia was the first team on the outside looking in at the bracket. Coincidence? One would be hard-pressed to believe so. 

Cunningham’s “explanation” as to why the Mountaineers were left out of the tournament field is even more laughable. 

"The last four teams that were out, it was a tough call," Cunningham said. "The first team out was West Virginia. They had an outstanding year and unfortunately, knowing Tucker DeVries was hurt...player availability is something that we talk about quite a bit.”

Why is this laughable? DeVries hasn’t played in a game since December 6th. West Virginia bolstered a .500 record in Big 12 play without DeVries. Had DeVries gone down with a season-ending injury in Kanas City for the Big 12 Tournament, this position may at least a little bit of sense.

But DeVries hasn’t played basketball for the Mountaineers in exactly 100 days and over that 100 days the Mountaineers, led by Javon Small have earned a right to play in the NCAA Tournament. Cunningham’s excuse is immensely flawed. 

And it gets worse. 

Cunningham cited both the Torvik Rankings and WAB as new metrics that the committee used to grade the teams. In building an explanation for UNC’s inclusion in the field, he cited both of these metrics. But WVU is ranked above UNC in both.

Torvik

WVU - 34th

UNC - 36th

WAB 

WVU - 41st 

UNC - 42nd

It truly is laughable. West Virginia being left out of the NCAA Tournament field is truly a travesty and puts the NCAA Selection Committee, led by UNC AD Bubba Cunningham in a bad light. 

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