CBS Analyst Jon Rothstein Criticizes Indiana's Exclusion From NCAA Tournament

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana's exclusion from the NCAA Tournament field generated a lot of reaction in the wake of the pairings being announced on Sunday.

One of those who criticized the NCAA Tournament selection committee was CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein.

North Carolina being in the NCAA Tournament over teams like Indiana and West Virginia is a miscarriage of justice.

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— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 17, 2025

"I'm going to talk about the bad right now, and I'm going to talk about it emphatically," Rothstein said during a CBS Sports Network studio show.

"If the criteria for the NCAA Tournament in terms of getting in that large bid is to beat other NCAA tournament teams if you're on the bubble, how in the world could North Carolina get in that large bid over Indiana and over West Virginia?" Rothstein asked rhetorically.

"Indiana, unlike North Carolina, has no quad three and four losses, Indiana went on the road to East Lansing and beat Michigan State, who's a two seed, and beat Purdue on its home floor, who is a four seed in this bracket, and Indiana did not get in the NCAA Tournament," Rothstein noted.

West Virginia was the last team left out of the NCAA Tournament field, one spot ahead of Indiana.

"Then let's talk about West Virginia. West Virginia won a game at Allen Fieldhouse (at Kansas). West Virginia beat Gonzaga on a neutral court. It beat Arizona on a neutral court. It also beat Iowa State," Rothstein said. "And North Carolina is in over those two teams. I'm just waiting for somebody to say, we got some swamp water to sell you Florida."

Quad 1 wins are the most valuable in the four-tiered Quad system the NCAA uses to parse wins in tandem with its NET ranking system.

North Carolina was 1-12 in Quad 1 games this season - the only victory was a two-point win over UCLA in December. The Tar Heels also had a Quad 3 loss to Stanford during the season.

Indiana was 4-13 in Quad 1 games, hardly impressive, but far superior to North Carolina's record. The Hoosiers also had no losses in any Quad 2-4 games.

Where North Carolina had an advantage over Indiana was in its superior NET ranking at No. 36 over Indiana's No. 54 ranking. Predictive metrics like Kenpom and Barttorvik.com had North Carolina in the mid-30s while Indiana averaged in the low 50s in their rankings. When Quad 1-2 games were combined, the Tar Heels were slightly superior to the Hoosiers with a 9-11 record versus Indiana's 8-13 mark.

One thing some experts noted that the media availability schedule announced before selections were made public offered a clue into North Carolina's tournament selection. Both committee chair Bubba Cunningham, the athletic director at North Carolina, and Keith Gill, commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and the vice-chairman of the committee, both were made available for interviews in tandem. Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spoke about this on the Eye On College Basketball podcast.

North Carolina getting into the field didn't surprise either @GaryParrishCBS or @MattNorlander. It turns out that the Tournament Committee might've tipped their hand before the Selection Sunday Show.

WATCH: https://t.co/9tSNNvuHG0 pic.twitter.com/0JFZC5nxRB
— Eye On College Basketball Podcast (@EyeOnCBBPodcast) March 17, 2025

"I knew I was going to interview the committee chair on CBS Sports Network. Then I was told it was going to be two people instead of one," Parrish said. "It was just like, 'Are they in?' It makes no sense to bring two people to that interview unless the primary person is not going to be capable of answering the biggest question you're going to have. That was a little bit of a tip of the hand."

Parrish also criticized North Carolina's inclusion.

"If you can't do better than 1-12 in Quad 1. That's all I need to know," Parrish said.

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