March Madness is supposed to be about buzzer-beaters, Cinderella stories, and bracket-busting upsets—not courtroom dramas or conspiracy theories. Yet, here we are in 2025, with college basketball fans clamoring for an AI intervention to fix the NCAA selection committee’s latest hot mess.
An undeserving UNC team with ONE Quad 1 win and a 1-11 record in Q1 games gets in the tourney.
— Chris Marler (@VernDumbquist) March 16, 2025
The chairperson for the NCAA tournament selection committee is Bubba Cunningham.
The same Bubba Cunningham who is North Carolina’s AD.
If you’re keeping score at home, THAT is what… pic.twitter.com/0WZN3IlxFu
Sound familiar? It should. This chaos echoes the fan-fueled revolt that toppled the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in college football just over a decade ago. You remember the clunky system that tried to crown a champion with computer codes, coach opinions, and human polls thrown into a blender. Now, after all the noise about dumping the BCS for a fairer system, ones where humans have a bigger voice, fans are begging for that very same formula—except this time, for college basketball. Oh, the irony as we truely come full circle.
The BCS: A Tale of Head-Scratching Lunacy
For those young enough to not know what the BCS is; once upon a time, college football’s BCS was the ultimate gatekeeper, picking championship contenders with a recipe so secret and confusing it made KFC’s 11 herbs and spices look like child’s play. You had computer rankings, coach polls, human polls, and probably a Magic 8-Ball or two. Who really knows?
Fans raged against the machine (pun intended) as the BCS kept serving up titles to the usual powerhouses—particularly the SEC—while talented underdogs were left in the dust. The whole thing was as clear as mud.
So, in 2014, the BCS was given the boot, replaced by the College Football Playoff (CFP), a shiny new four-team format. Fast-forward to 2024, and it’s been expanded to a 12-team showdown where the little guys finally get their shot. Victory for the fans, right? You'd think so, but here we are.
2025’s Selection Committee: March Madness or March Mockery?
Well, if you thought the BCS era was bad, this year’s NCAA Tournament selection process just threw itself into the “Hold My Beer” Hall of Fame according to fans (click here for all the reaction).
How about the NC athletic director Bubba Cunningham making an extra $104,166.66 for the @GoHeels making @NCAA Tournament - just happens to be the chair of @MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/Aviy9I9BEw
— Bill Gillispie, CMAA, CIC (@GillispieBill) March 17, 2025
West Virginia strutted into Selection Sunday with a respectable 19-13 record and six Quad 1 wins. That’s like a rock-solid social media profile with all the right pics. Meanwhile, the University of North Carolina rolled in with just one Quad 1 win and a faceplant of a Quad 3 loss. But here’s the kicker: UNC’s athletic director, Bubba Cunningham, just so happens to be the chair of the selection committee. Nothing to see here, folks. Just some good ol’ coincidence. He left the room while it was being discussed after all.
WVU fans? They’re ready to storm the castle. Even West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey jumped in, calling the process a “miscarriage of justice” and hinting at “backroom deals.” He even threatened to sue the NCAA.
Bubba insists he left the room whenever UNC was discussed. But come on, man. The optics are just terrible. And while the selection committee is much better than the BCS system, there is something said about changing WHO is on the committee.
BCS Déjà Vu: Same Game, Different Court
The parallels are chef’s kiss perfect.
Bias Towards Big-Name Schools: The BCS was accused of being SEC’s personal hype machine. The NCAA selection committee? Now getting dragged for being Bubba’s Tar Heel marketing department.
Opaque Formulas: The BCS’s secret sauce was practically written in code by the dude from A Beautiful Mind. The NCAA’s selection criteria might as well be written in Wingdings at this point. NET is supposed to matter, and at least the NCAA has the NET tool on their side as North Carolina is at 36 while WVU is the 50's.
Conflicts of Interest: The BCS had coaches voting for their own conferences. The NCAA committee has active ADs making decisions, ones that help them get bonuses. Swap helmets for hoops, and it’s the same dumpster fire with a different mascot.
The AI Savior
The same fans who rioted against the BCS’s computer-driven madness are now chanting for a machine to save March Madness. That’s right. They’re literally asking for the thing just 11 years ago they hated.
Why wouldn’t these old clueless bastards on the selection committee just let AI do the seeding? Why, because then they cannot pull strings for their cronies. The NCAA is basically the mafia.
— 33 & 3 (@TheVille33and3) March 17, 2025
I mean, having active AD's serve on the committee may be a bad look, but let's not go backwards to using computer models to determine champions. It did not work then, and it will not work now.
The 2025 fiasco isn’t just about WVU or UNC—it’s about fans who are tired of squinting at the selection process like it’s a blurry replay. They want fairness. And most of all, they want their blood pressure to stay below “about to throw my TV out the window” levels. At least until the games tip off.
Final Thoughts
Will AI save college basketball from itself? Or are we doomed to relive BCS-style nonsense every spring? At this rate, the NCAA selection committee’s going to need a public relations miracle—or a really good AI developer on speed dial.
So what do you think? Should AI take over the bracket-making madness? Should we just reform who should be on the committee to ensure fairness? It did not change much for Kentucky basketball this year, but it could in the future.