AG’s Office Launches Investigation Into NCAA Tournament Selection Process

At the request of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, Attorney General J.B. McCuskey is launching an investigation into the NCAA tournament selection process – hoping to prevent what the governor called a “miscarriage of justice” in future years.

The governor took his backyard brawl sports metaphor to the NCAA on Monday, questioning why the West Virginia University men’s basketball team didn’t make the 68-team cut for the annual March Madness tournament. 

Morrisey pointed to the Mountaineers’ 19-12 record this season with 10 wins in conference play, and the millions of dollars at stake. 

“We need objective criteria to make sure that everyone knows this is a level playing field.” Morrisey said. “This isn’t just about the blue bloods gaining attention, that if you’re going to be the grind-’em-out school, wonderful school, WVU, we wanna be on a level playing field. That’s what we’re asking for.” 

Morrisey said the investigation is needed to determine if any backroom deals, corruption, bribes, or any nefarious activity has occurred. McCuskey said it makes a difference not only for fans but for players, coaches and the university.

“It’s easy for the casual fan to look at the NCAA tournament and see it as sort of a fun way to fill out a bracket, but at the end of the day, it’s a billion dollar business that involves [Name Image Likeness fees],” McCuskey said.

“It involves the lifetime’s worth of work for a ton of student athletes who are, this would have been the pinnacle of their career. … We have 11 new players that weren’t on the team last year, and we earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Can’t really make an argument any other way. There is no mathematical metric that shows you that WVU should been left out in favor of some of the teams that were there,” he said. 

McCuskey said he believes the NCAA has a relatively antiquated process for selecting the 68 teams that make it to the March tournament. He hopes the investigation of that process will lead to a level of detail and a level of transparency and a level of accountability that teams like West Virginia can plan on in the future.

The WVU Women’s Basketball team was included in their NCAA tournament as a six seed.