SOMEONE NAMED BUBBA BECOMES THE DESPISED BLUEBLOOD OF MARCH MADNESS
North Carolina’s athletic director shouldn’t have chaired the NCAA selection committee when he takes payments — $67,905.67 — for a tournament berth while Belichick uses his legs to lift his girlfriend
Not sure why we’d trust an athletic director from North Carolina named Bubba, but it’s the same school that hired Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend. The first question is not why Belichick was utilizing his sturdy legs to lift Jordon Hudson into the air — he was on the beach; she was thrusting her arms and legs — but why Bubba Cunningham allowed himself to chair the NCAA tournament selection committee.
Isn’t this a position that should be neutral from the proceedings of a major event? Why would Cunningham serve with a financial conflict of interest far beyond flagrant? He knew he’d make $67,905.67 from his school contract if his program, the Tar Heels, reached the 68-team brackets. Why take such an important role when he makes $50,000 for a Sweet 16 bid, $75,000 for a Final Four bid and $100,000 for a national championship?
Why wouldn’t Bubba realize he could be in a very weird squeeze? Just like Hudson?
The problem became a crisis when the committee selected North Carolina for a berth. Normally, few care about teams making the last four at-large spots. But Cunningham’s leadership with his staff members might have swayed minds, while he recused himself from conversations about his team. Otherwise, why the Tar Heels? Against better teams this season, in Quadrant 1, the Heels were 1-12. West Virginia, one of the aghast losers, had six Quad 1 victories.
Broadcaster Dick Vitale, who has battled cancer four times in more than three years, halted his tears and poured Carolina emotions onto his social media platform. “All we hear is talk about the importance of QUAD 1 wins — UNC in Quad 1 tough games was 1-12. Don’t you have to win a couple? … I feel @WVUhoops got a raw deal,” he wrote.
He was joined by Patrick Morrisey, governor of West Virginia, who went Full Bubba at a news conference and demanded his attorney general investigate the NCAA. Standing with a sign that read “National Corrupt Athletic Association,” he said: "West Virginia deserved to be in the NCAA tournament. This was a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest levels. This stinks at the highest level. This doesn't pass the smell test. … I want folks to let that sink in for a moment. Any way you slice it, this thing reeks of corruption.”
Also feeling gypped was Indiana, where radio rabble-rouser Dan Dakich pounded away. “This is simply a ridiculous conflict. Bubba Cunningham gets (payoffs) for UNC making the NCAA tournament and HE’S THE HEAD OF THE SELECTION COMMITTEE!!!” he posted on social media.
Bubba? “The last four teams that were out ... a tough call,” Cunningham said. “The next team out was West Virginia, and they had an outstanding year and, unfortunately, knowing Tucker DeVries was hurt, player availability is something that we talk about quite a bit. Indiana was close, Ohio State was close, Boise (State) was close.”
Appearing Sunday night on CBS, Cunningham asked committee vice chair Keith Gill to address questions. “Obviously, I'm going to defer that to Keith. But all the policies and procedures were followed,” he said. “And Keith can address exactly how North Carolina was discussed because I was not in the room for any of that.”
What he should have expressed was regret for chairing the committee. Have a faculty member in charge of the show, not a prominent athletic director whose team is among college basketball’s bluebloods. Said Gill: “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. Saturday night we took our final vote, and we voted in four teams in the field and we had a contingency vote. The contingency vote, that was the last team in the field. And it was based on Memphis and UAB. If Memphis won that game, that was going to free up a spot in the tournament, and that was going to be North Carolina. If UAB had won, Memphis was going to be in the tournament, UAB would have been in the tournament and North Carolina would have been the first team out.”
No West Virginia? Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River? “The hardest part of bracketing or any selection is you have to make a cut somewhere,” Cunningham said. “Unfortunately, this year there were so many outstanding conference champions and either the first or second team in each of those leagues won so we had opportunities to go a little bit deeper with some of our teams. But it’s always a fine line that you draw at the end.”
Carolina plunged past it anyway, despite a rough season under coach Hubert Davis that demanded the hire of longtime NBA agent Jim Tanner as general manager. The Tar Heels were 0-3 against Duke and Jon Scheyer, who is dominating the double-edged scene between Durham and Chapel Hill.
As Bubba and the Heels prepare for San Diego State in Dayton, attorney general JB McCuskey might be pursuing litigation down yonder. “What we are asking for is a level of detail and a level of transparency, level of accountability, so teams like West Virginia can plan in the future and say, ‘What are we supposed to do to get into the tournament?’ ’’ he said. “We need to know what they are looking for.”
How about starting with Dean Smith, moving on to Roy Williams and stopping with Belichick and his viral photos? “Bill Belichick, whatever he’s on, keep taking it. He’s on something,” Stephen A. Smith said. “I’m not mad at him at all. I want to know what it is.”
That’s what you lack, West Virginia.
Men who don’t give a damn about rules.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.