The way Jon Rothstein is acting toward North Carolina for earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament field is like they harmed one of his family members.
Rothstein, a CBS Sports college basketball analyst, has been freaking out over the UNC basketball program earning the final spot in the field ever since the bracket was revealed. In case you missed it, here's what Rothstein's latest rant sounded like:
North Carolina being in the NCAA Tournament over teams like Indiana and West Virginia is a miscarriage of justice.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 17, 2025
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“If the criteria for the NCAA Tournament in terms of getting an at-large bid is to beat other NCAA Tournament teams, how in the world could North Carolina get an at-large bid over Indiana and over West Virginia? Indiana, unlike North Carolina, has no Quad 3 and 4 losses. Indiana went on the road to East Lansing and beat Michigan State, who is a two-seed, and beat Purdue on its home floor and is a four-seed and Indiana did not get in the NCAA Tournament. Then let’s talk about West Virginia. West Virginia won a game at Allen Fieldhouse. West Virginia beat Gonzaga on a neutral court. They beat Arizona on a neutral court. It also beat Iowa State. 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 in Florida.”
A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE!
Now, Rothstein's argument would be much stronger (and a lot less revealing of his apparent hatred for the University of North Carolina) if he wasn't solely focus on the Tar Heels earning a spot.
As much as you can debate North Carolina earning a bid, why is there not a single mention of a team like Xavier, one that, like the Tar Heels, struggled in Quad 1 games but literally ranks lower than North Carolina in essentially every metric looked at.
It could just be because of the name, but man, it's a bad look for Jon Rothstein to be acting like this on a national stage, especially making it seem like Bubba Cunningham was the director of a corruption scheme to get the Tar Heels into the tournament.
While the likes of Rothstein and Joe Lunardi are losing sleep over being wrong, they really should look for ways to hide their emotions, cause the hate is very much evident.
The best part is- Rothstein will be part of the broadcast team for North Carolina's play-in game on Tuesday night. It's certain that he'll continue to find ways to bash the Tar Heels while he has a microphone in his hand.