NCAA tournament 2025: Selection committed chaired by North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham explains how UNC made the field

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Hubert Davis, R.J. Davis and the Tar Heels are going to the NCAA tournament. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)

North Carolina was very much on the NCAA tournament bubble last week and projected by many to miss the field when it fell short of the ACC championship game in a heartbreaking semifinal loss to Duke.

But the Tar Heels were revealed on Sunday as an 11 seed in the South region as the last at-large team to make the field. They made the field thanks to a vote of the NCAA tournament selection committee that’s chaired by North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham.

This, of course, raised questions about how UNC made the field. Cunningham and selection committee vice chair Keith Gill — who’s the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference — addressed those questions while speaking with CBS after Sunday’s bracket reveal.

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Cunningham told CBS that he was not in the room when North Carolina was voted in in accordance with selection-committee protocol. He then yielded to Gill.

“I’m gonna defer that to Keith,” Cunningham said when asked about UNC’s inclusion by CBS’ Seth Davis. “All of the policies and procedures were followed. Keith can address exactly how North Carolina was discussed. I was not in the room for any of that.”

Gill went on to provide more detail about the committee’s protocol to avoid conflicts of interest.

“As the vice chair, I managed all the conversations that we had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few,” Gill said. “Our policies require the AD 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.”

Gill then explained that North Carolina was the last at-large team to make the field, and that it wouldn’t have had UAB beat Memphis in Sunday’s AAC championship game.

“Saturday night, we took our final vote. We voted in four teams in the field on Saturday night, and we had a…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball/article/ncaa-tournament-2025-selection-committed-chaired-by-north-carolina-ad-bubba-cunningham-explains-how-unc-made-the-field-235146591.html

Author : Jason Owens

Publish date : 2025-03-16 23:51:00

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