2025 NCAA Tournament Rant

To begin, this has nothing to do with my Bracketology.   I do it for fun and because I absolutely love this tournament.  I have for over 40 years.  And the tournament will deliver despite what I am about to say.  It always does.

Here goes.  The inclusion of North Carolina was completely done because the AD was the chair and the good ol' boys hung out with him all week AND because of TV.

Now nobody cares about my opinion.  I get that.  But the decision was made to include two teams who proved time and again this season they could not win Quad 1 games.  Let me break this down real simple with mathematics...

The NCAA Tournament is played on neutral sites.  A Quad 1 game on a neutral site is represented by teams in the top 50 in the NET.  Other than most of the AQ teams on seed lines 12 to 16, every other team is in the top 50 except for conveniently North Carolina's First Four opponent San Diego State.  So when picking an 11 seed, every team they are likely to face is a Quad 1 game in the tournament.   Yet a team who was 1-12 in those such games is given another chance because of Brand Name.  Xavier was 1-9 in those games.  The committee sighted the records when including Quad 2.  You know where Quad 2 games are played?  The NIT!

West Virginia defeated 3 top teams in the top 12 in NET.  Plus one other victory better than UNC'S lone triumph over UCLA.  But West Virginia does not draw eyeballs.  The Mountaineers played a #62 non-conference schedule which is very good, played in a tougher Big 12 and still only ended up with one more losses than UNC.  West Virginia also did not have a Quad 3 loss but guess who did?  Yep, the Tar Heels.  

This is such a bad inclusion and such a bad look.  And don't get me started on predictive metrics.  How many games did North Carolina lose when the metrics said they should win?  On court results matter.  UNC failed this year and that should have been ok. 

If you read this, thanks for listening.