The state of West Virginia continues its longstanding tradition of attacking the NCAA, though it remains uncertain if its latest charge will wind up in court.
On Monday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Attorney General John “JB” McCuskey announced in a press conference that their administration would investigate the NCAA men’s basketball tournament selection committee after the West Virginia Mountaineers men’s basketball team was controversially denied a bid to March Madness.
The state’s planned probe is the latest in a series of legislative and legal confrontations against college sports’ national governing body.
Standing before a podium emblazoned with the phrase “National Corrupt Athletic Association,” Morrisey, a first-term Republican, called WVU’s tourney exclusion a “miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest level.” He sharply criticized the selection committee’s decision to award one of its final bids to North Carolina, whose athletic director, Bubba Cunningham, chaired the selection committee. Cunningham has said he recused himself from being present in the room when any decisions involving UNC were made, but his explanation has failed to quell his chorus of critics. Morrisey, now leading that tune, dismissed Cunningham’s claims of neutrality, saying they “don’t pass the smell test.”
As a result, Morrisey said he has directed McCuskey to investigate whether any “backyard deals, backroom dealings, corruption, bribes or any nefarious activities” influenced the selection process, promising to “leave no stone unturned” in the inquiry.
“I’ve watched what the NCAA has done over a prolong period of time and I have seen the arrogance of the institution and that has been disturbing to me,” Morrisey said, while acknowledging the association has “made some positive changes over the years.”
A spokesperson for the NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite the podium signage and the combative rhetoric, McCuskey said he was “hopeful” that the NCAA would work with his office to put to rest concerns that the selection process “is a completely subjective analysis.” Morrisey later echoed the sentiment, saying it was “premature to talk about litigation” and that he also hoped the NCAA would “want to work collaboratively” with them.
Last month, 11 West Virginia lawmakers introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA or its conferences from investigating or punishing athletes over NIL activities. The bill aligns with similar legislation passed in other states.
In December 2023, WVU basketball player RaeQuan Battle filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA after being denied a waiver for the transfer eligibility rules, which would have required him to sit out a full year before competing. Battle, who previously starred at Montana State, hade opted to transfer to WVU after the departure of his former coach, Danny Sprinkle, who took the job at Utah State.
In conjunction with Battle’s lawsuit, West Virginia led a coalition of six states in filing a declaratory action in federal court, seeking to block the NCAA’s transfer restrictions. The states argued that these amounted to an illegal restraint of trade.
After a federal judge in West Virginia issued a temporary restraining order in favor of the plaintiffs, the parties agreed to a settlement in May 2024, with the NCAA lifting its transfer restrictions for certain athletes and reinstating the eligibility of others affected by the rule. Morrisey, who served as West Virginia’s attorney general at the time, raised the specter Monday that WVU’s exclusion from this year’s men’s tournament was a form of “retribution.”
“We’re going to have to get to the bottom of that,” he said.
A decade ago, former West Virginia football player Shawne Alston served as the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s cap on the educational-related benefits that schools could provide to athletes. This ultimately resulted in a unanimous 9-0 Supreme Court ruling against the NCAA, igniting a nationwide wave of legal and legislative challenges to the association’s foundational principle of amateurism. The final blow is expected in just a few weeks, when a settlement to resolve three antitrust cases challenging the NCAA’s restrictions on athlete pay is presented to a federal judge for final approval.
In late 2014, just months after Alston filed his suit, Oliver Luck, who was then serving as West Virginia’s athletic director, left the Mountaineers to take a job as the NCAA’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs. While at WVU, Luck served on the inaugural College Football Playoff Selection committee.
