Pat McAfee made his highly anticipated statements regarding both West Virginia University being snubbed from the March Madness Tournament and UNC’s Athletic Director, Bubba Cunningham’s scandalous involvement in the decision to place his own school in the tournament over the Mountaineers who had an arguably better resume.
Pat McAfee believes that a contributing factor in the committee’s decision to leave West Virginia out of the tournament was the fact that the Universities’ big sports such as basketball and football have not garnered a lot of national recognition in the last decade.
“At men’s basketball and men’s Football, there hasn’t been the national moment for a while,” said McAfee, “and I think that was held against us.”
McAfee then highlighted a statement made by the selection committee earlier today where their reasoning for leaving West Virginia out had more to do with Forward, Tucker DeVries getting hurt over two months ago. McAfee stated that Darian and Tucker DeVries came into Morgantown and were instantly loved by the city and it’s fanbase and believes that Coach DeVries should stay with the program and hack away at a comeback next season.
“They are saying he is going to leave and I hope he doesn’t,” said McAfee. “I’m hoping he has a little bit of an axe to grind because of how this season ended.”
In a separate segment, McAfee started talking about Bubba Cunningham and the controversy surrounding his name as he is not only the head of the selection committee but also the Athletic Director at UNC.
“Everybody is saying Bubba did call a shot,” said McAfee referring to UNC making it as the last team into the tournament. McAfee then goes on to discuss one of many reasons why Cunningham could have actually called that shot, the reasoning being monetary gain.
Under Bubba Cunningham’s contract, if UNC makes the NCAA Tournament he gets a $104 thousand dollar bonus. In other words, McAfee believes that Bubba pulled some strings to get his team into the tournament using his position of power to make some quick cash.
“Bubba was the head of the selection committee,” said McAfee. “He also gets a 104 thousand dollar bonus if North Carolina makes the tournament.” McAfee goes on to say “Bubba’s made a lot of money, but a 104 thousand dollar check coming around is not a bad thing to take place. It is hard not to automatically say this seems to be a little bit contrived doesn’t it?”
McAfee ends his rant with a statement saying “Then Bubba is sitting up there as the chair of the whole thing getting a 104 thousand dollar bonus because of this, it’s hard not to be like, you cut the books.”
Many fans around the country would believe this to be true, especially fans of not only West Virginia but also Indiana who was another team that was controversially left out of the tournament. Pat McAfee remains hopeful and believes “West Virginia will be back,” and in fact he believes, “West Virginia will be back and on top in all of the big sports,” and at this time Mountaineer fans across the country pray that he is correct.
