March Madness is officially under way after a wild Selection Sunday that included a jaw-dropping number of teams from one powerhouse conference.
And, some head scratching inclusions of teams that were supposedly on the outside, looking in.
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) landed a record 14 teams in the tournament, including overall top seed Auburn.
Auburn beat out Duke to receive top billing in the tournament despite those three losses over the past two weeks, and despite also dropping a game to the Blue Devils back in December.
Another SEC school and other No. 1 seed, Florida, which captured the SEC tournament by winning three games with an average margin of 15 points, opens as a slight favorite to win it all at the Final Four in San Antonio on April 5 and 7, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
Houston (30-4) rounds out the other No. 1 seeds. The Cougars swept the Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles, securing their fourth straight 30-win season to tie Gonzaga for the second-longest streak in Division I history.
However, perhaps the biggest surprise of selection was the inclusion of North Carolina, which many experts believe was one of the first teams out.
North Carolina barely slid into this year’s tournament, a development that led its athletic director to remind everyone that he had nothing to do with that choice even though he’s the head of the group that sets the bracket.
“There were,” North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham said, “a number of challenges” in putting together a bracket that hoops fans can only hope provides as many thrills on the court as it did during the 60-minute bracket show.
CBS analyst Seth Davis acknowledged it right away when he opened his interview with Cunningham by wondering “whether North Carolina may have gotten a little bit of an advantage with its AD as the chair.”
Cunningham’s vice-chair, Keith Gill, who, in an unusual move was also brought in for the interview, insisted it had not.
“As vice-chair, I managed all the conversations we had about North Carolina, and we had quite a few,” Gill said. He confirmed that Cunningham was not allowed to participate in any vote about his own school.
The Tar Heels were the last team in, based not on its 1-12 record against Quad 1 teams, but on its 8-0 mark against Quad 2, along with other favorable metrics, Gill said.
“You take all those things in consideration, and the committee felt they should earn that last spot,” Gill said.
"I was not in the room for any of that."
Chairman of the NCAA Men's Basketball Selection Committee and UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham explained the process behind the Tar Heels getting into the tournament. pic.twitter.com/vAD7qu4s3F
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 16, 2025
UNC (22-13) will face San Diego State (21-9) as part of the First Four in Dayton to open NCAA tournament play.
Two-time defending national champion UConn, who seeking the sport’s first threepeat since the early ‘70s is seeded eighth, with a potential second-round game against No. 1 seed Florida next weekend.