Aspects described herein include an exclusionary approach for basic service set (BSS) color selection and assignment in a network. A network controller for a network selects a radio associated with an access point (AP) under management of the network controller and determines a potential set of BSS colors for the radio. The network controller then removes/excludes a set of BSS colors that impacts the radio from the potential set of BSS colors and updates or assigns a BSS color for the selected radio using the potential set of BSS colors, minimizing the chances that the assigned BSS color will cause an overlapping BSS color condition in the network.