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Why did North Carolina make March Madness? NCAA selection committee vice chair Keith Gill explains

North Carolina basketball fans can thank Memphis for its berth in the NCAA Tournament.

The Tar Heels earned an at-large berth during the Selection Show on Sunday, which revealed UNC as a First Four play-in team. The Tar Heels will take on fellow No. 11 seed San Diego State in Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday. The winner will advance to the first round against No. 3 Iowa State.

REQUIRED READING: Can your picks survive March Madness? Join our Survivor Pool to find out

UNC's inclusion in the tournament was met with ire and confusion on social media, as the Tar Heels looked to be on the outside looking in when the Selection Show started on Sunday.

However, a conference tournament game worked in favor of North Carolina getting in: Memphis beating UAB in the AAC championship game earlier in the day, according to NCAA Men’s Basketball Vice Chair Keith Gill.

"Saturday night we took our final vote and voted in four teams in the field on Saturday night," Gill said on the CBS broadcast. "And we had a contingency vote on the last team in the field. It was based on Memphis-UAB. If Memphis won that game, then that was going to free up the spot and that team was going to be North Carolina.

"If UAB had won, then Memphis was going to be in the tournament, UAB would have been in the tournament and North Carolina would have been the first team out. That process played out today. Memphis won and that put North Carolina in the field."

Memphis earned an 84-72 victory over UAB on Sunday.

Selection Committee Chair Bubba Cunningham and Vice Chair Keith Gill give insight into the selection process.#MarchMadnesspic.twitter.com/mXHDDwftaL

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 16, 2025

The Sun Belt Conference commissioner also added that while UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham is the chair of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, he recused himself and was not in the room during any discussions regarding North Carolina.

Even so, there is some speculation about what Cunningham's enduring presence can do to some members of the committee.

Whether North Carolina should be in or not is a good debate. Their AD is the chairman of the selection committee but cannot be in the room when the Tar Heels are discussed. But it’s human nature that it doesn’t hurt UNC’s chances when other members of the committee have spent so…

— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) March 16, 2025

"As the vice chair, I managed all the conversations we had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few," Gill said. "Our policies require the AD of any school to recuse themselves and leave the room for those discussions and do not allow them to participate in any vote as well. We followed those."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How did UNC make NCAA Tournament? Keith Gill explains Tar Heels' inclusion

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Topics

  • NCAA Tournament
  • Tournament
  • March Madness
  • March
  • Madness

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