NCAA tournament 2025: Selection committee chaired by North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham explains how UNC made the field
Last week, North Carolina was squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble and widely projected to miss out after a heartbreaking semifinal loss to Duke in the ACC tournament.
However, on Selection Sunday, the Tar Heels were announced as an 11 seed in the South region — the final at-large team selected. Their inclusion sparked questions, especially since the NCAA tournament selection committee is chaired by North Carolina’s athletic director, Bubba Cunningham.
Both Cunningham and committee vice chair Keith Gill, the Sun Belt Conference commissioner, addressed the controversy during an interview with CBS after the bracket reveal. Cunningham clarified he wasn’t present for the discussions or vote concerning UNC, following standard committee protocol, and deferred to Gill for more details.
Gill stated, “As vice chair, I oversaw all discussions involving North Carolina — and there were several. According to our policies, any school’s athletic director must recuse themselves entirely, meaning they leave the room and cannot take part in any conversations or voting related to their own program.”
Gill confirmed that he led all conversations related to North Carolina and emphasized that NCAA policies require a school’s athletic director to leave the room during deliberations about their team and abstain from voting.
He also explained how close the decision was — North Carolina’s bid hinged on the result of Sunday’s AAC championship game. The final vote took place Saturday night, with contingency plans in place. If Memphis won (which they did), it opened a spot for UNC. But had UAB won, both Memphis and UAB would have been in, and North Carolina would have been the first team left out.
Gill explained, “We held our final vote on Saturday night, selecting four teams for the field, along with a contingency vote for the last available spot. That decision hinged on the outcome of the Memphis-UAB game.
If Memphis won — which they did — it opened up a slot, and that spot went to North Carolina. But if UAB had won, both UAB and Memphis would’ve been in, and North Carolina would’ve ended up as the first team left out.”
How UNC stacked up against other bubble teams
North Carolina’s selection over other bubble teams like West Virginia and Indiana came down to a combination of strong advanced metrics, a clean record in Quad 2 games, and a strong finish to the season.
The case against UNC was clear — they went just 1-12 against Quad 1 opponents, compared to Indiana’s 4-13 and West Virginia’s 6-10. They also had a Quad 3 loss to Stanford, something neither Indiana nor West Virginia had.
But the case for UNC included their perfect 8-0 record in Quad 2 games, compared to Indiana’s 5-0 and West Virginia’s 4-3. They also fared better in the analytics: North Carolina ranked 36th in NET and 33rd in KenPom, while Indiana was 54th and 48th, and West Virginia 51st and 53rd, respectively.
Additionally, the Tar Heels finished the season strong — going 8-2 down the stretch and ending with a 22-13 record overall, including 13-7 in ACC play, after starting 14-11. The committee saw that late surge and stronger overall profile as enough to justify putting UNC in the field over others.