The North Carolina Tar Heels were controversially included in the 2025 NCAA Tournament field, and pretty much everyone thinks they know why.
The Tar Heels made the field as a “First Four” team, and will face San Diego State in Milwaukee on Friday. North Carolina made the field despite a 22-13 overall record and a 1-12 mark against Quad 1 opponents. North Carolina’s lone Quad 1 victory was a 76-74 victory over UCLA on Dec. 21.
Most experts felt that North Carolina had blown its chance to make the field by losing to a shorthanded Duke team in the ACC Tournament on Friday. After they were announced in the field, many people were quick to point out that North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham is serving as chairman of the selection committee this year, and some theorized that Cunningham intervened to make sure his school made the tournament.
North Carolina’s Athletic Director is the chair of the selection committee and somehow his school gets into the tournament with 1 Q1 win.
— HornSports (@HornSports) March 16, 2025
Ridiculous.
Bubba Cunningham needs to be arrested. He just forced his team into the tourney.
— Zion O. (@DukeNBA) March 16, 2025
I'm sure Bubba Cunningham will give a great explanation of why North Carolina is in the field.
— Inside the Hall (@insidethehall) March 16, 2025
shout out Bubba Cunningham coming with the home cooking! lol
— Duke Better (@DukeBetter) March 16, 2025
Others had already pointed out even before the Tar Heels got in that athletic directors leave the room when their schools are discussed for at-large bids. Cunningham would not have been allowed to vote for North Carolina to be in the field, but that was never going to stop people from jumping to conclusions.
With #UNC squarely on the NCAAT bubble, Bubba Cunningham is in a no-win situation as selection comm chair. He cannot vote for UNC, which means UNC can only receive 11 of a possible 12 votes. And if UNC receives an at-large bid, there will be a narrative that he helped his Heels.
— Greg Barnes (@GSBarnes23) March 15, 2025
Many others were quick to note that North Carolina is a blue-blood program with a national name and would bring in high ratings, and the committee favored them for those reasons. That charge is much more difficult to argue against, especially since their resume was seen as poor. Many experts such as ESPN’s Joe Lunardi predicted the Tar Heels would miss the field, citing their lack of quality wins.
Men's Bracketology: 2025 NCAA Tournament https://t.co/146SOUuyXo. 🏀🏀 Here's the latest on Selection Sunday morning: Realistically, we are down to three teams (Indiana, Xavier, Boise State) for two spots. After them, Texas has too many losses and North Carolina doesn't have…
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) March 16, 2025
This is not the first time fans have felt that an athletic director put his finger on the scale in the selection process. As long as the apparent conflict of interest exists, people will seize on it, fairly or not.
