ESPN analysts question selection committee, North Carolina bias with Bubba Cunningham in room

North Carolina making the NCAA Tournament caused quite the stir during Selection Sunday, as well as the day after. ESPN’s Sean Farnham and Seth Greenberg both called out the committee for putting the Tar Heels in the Big Dance.

For this year’s edition, North Carolina earned an 11 seed, but will have to play in the First Four. But their resume leading up to it didn’t qualify as an NCAA Tournament team.

Farnham and Greenberg acknowledged it was likely the wrong decision. But North Carolina, for better or worse, is good enough to win a game in the tournament.

“That is absolute fiction,” Farnham said on Get Up. “You look at it and everybody says, ‘Okay, well, they got a spot because they had the fourth best non-conference strength of schedule in the NCAA.’ You can’t schedule your way in. I don’t care who you play. I care who you beat. They beat American and UCLA. That’s it. That’s not a resume that gets you in the NCAA Tournament.”

The conversation about North Carolina also turned to AD Bubba Cunningham, who’s on the committee himself. While he “wasn’t in the room” during the discussion about UNC, it didn’t stop people from talking.

“I was shocked as well,” Greenberg said. “Look, everyone says, you know, he recuses himself from the meeting where they talk about North Carolina, but breakfast, lunch and dinner, they are all together talking about the big picture of the bracket. Secondly is, look, Bubba Cunningham is a good man, and he is in charge of that committee, that committee group. They probably do not want to disappoint him. 

“Having said that they’ve got a draw that they can actually win a game, they’re good enough to win a game. They’re good enough to beat San Diego State. They’re good enough to give Ole Miss a game, but their resume says they should not be in the tournament.”

Cunningham had to address the potential bias problem in the room when it came to North Carolina during Selection Sunday.

“Any of us that have to chair the committee, you come in with that knowledge,” Cunningham said. “I’ve been on the committee now for five years, I’ve watched four others lead the committee. And I think it’s been a great learning experience. You do have an opinion, you do have your own thoughts and your own ideas. 

“But the responsibility of the chair is to have the committee work together to be fair, to find the best 37 to put in the field, and allow everyone to speak their mind. We follow those procedures as they have been prescribed and used for a number of years.”