Charles McClelland can take a deep breath now.

The SWAC commissioner’s time as NCAA men’s basketball section committee chair is over so the weight of those decisions is now on the next guy.

But the phone calls and emails persist.

Oh, do the fans care and some still feel victimized by the committee that sets the NCAA tournament bracket.

Speaking to a small group of reporters at the Birmingham Tip-Off Club on Monday, McClelland cracked a grin when asked about continued criticism he’s receiving.

He said two groups were the most upset following the 2024 tournament selection process.

One was the fans from the Big East.

The other: Auburn.

“You know, last year there were a lot of calls from my office or to my office from Auburn fans trying to figure out how Auburn ended up in Washington,” he said. “And quite frankly, the committee doesn’t know where teams are going until the last stage is really when we’re looking at the bracket.

The Auburn complaints ran beyond being sent to the Pacific Northwest, but they felt the No. 4 regional seed wasn’t just for the SEC tournament champs.

But in terms of who goes where, McClelland tried to explain that process Monday. Zoomed out, he said the committee seeds teams and then places them into brackets. They don’t see the full view of the bracket with who is heading where until the final stages of the selection process.

Casagrande: NCAA committees got it wrong with Auburn twice Sunday (from 2024)

The No. 1 overall seed get to pick its region and it goes by location for the seeds that follow. They have to balance the regions to make sure one isn’t overloaded while leaving another thin.

“So you really don’t know who’s going to be matched up against who until that entire bracket is filled out,” McClelland said. “So oftentimes it’s not until the bracket is printed. We look at it and say, oh, here’s the potential matchups. A lot of people think that we’re strategically putting teams where they’re supposed to be as far as creating these matchups, and that couldn’t be farthest from the truth.”

Auburn was ultimately upset by 13th-seeded Ivy League champ Yale, 78-76, in the first round.

Fans from the Big East didn’t love the selection process from the perspective of who got left out.

Namely: St. John’s supporters.

Those messages continue to this day.

“As a matter of fact,” he said, “I had a St. John’s fan that emailed me day before yesterday reminding me that we did not allow St. John’s into the tournament and he expressed his displeasure. So even a year after the entire process, America seems not to forget the things that they’re upset with you about.

“So there are quite a bit of calls to the office and it’s part of the process. But it again shows how important this tournament is to each individual person that’s a part of it.”

McClelland said he doesn’t respond to the angry emails he still receives.

“I didn’t want to get into a back and forth, but I understood the passion,” he said. “I understood what they were ultimately concerned about. And again, I would say this to all fans. Just because your team doesn’t get in does not necessarily mean that they were not there. It’s just the way that the votes can fall.”

Ultimately, it’s not personal.

McClelland promised there are no conspiracies to screw over one school or conference within a complicated selection process.

But when things were as tricky as last season’s field was to set, the angry responses are the cost of doing business and McClelland understands that.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.