Twitter reacts after ESPN accidentally leaks women’s bracket hours early
ESPN made a massive blunder on Monday, revealing the brackets for the NCAA women’s tournament bracket hours early thanks to an apparent on-air mistake.
During a re-air of ESPN’s “Bracketology” special with analysis of the men’s tournament, a few viewers noticed the network’s sidebar was running what was labeled as the women’s bracket, with complete seedings and pairings. This was on TV just after 3 p.m. ET, despite the fact that the official reveal had been scheduled for 7 p.m.
As @BlakeDuDonis pointed out, it appears ESPN accidentally leaked the NCAA women's bracket before tonight's selection show. pic.twitter.com/EtkBVQQuYG
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) March 18, 2019
ESPN confirmed that the leak was real, and simultaneously announced that the initial bracket announcement had been moved up two hours to 5 p.m.
ESPN Statement Regarding the NCAA Women’s Tournament Bracket https://t.co/NpWbMoDCV2 pic.twitter.com/zffGXI6BTx
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) March 18, 2019
As many noted, the rescheduling to cover the network’s own error meant that numerous watch parties scheduled at many schools would be thrown off on short notice, even if the network was still opting to broadcast a full selection show at the original time. That may be happening, but every school involved would already know their fate by that point
Twitter, naturally, went in on ESPN for their error. Many were particularly angry at the network for rescheduling the announcement, which does nothing to fix the leak but only serves to cause chaos for the schools.
What an enormous cluster. ESPN accidentally leaked the bracket early, so now the selection show gets moved up (not sure why, since leak already happened) and every team's planned watch party won't even have a show. Good job, good effort https://t.co/C5F3mITWuz
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) March 18, 2019
ESPN/NCAA are doing a massive disservice to the schools in response to this leak… moving the selection show up doesn't fix the accident, but now 60+ schools have to change their plans
— TheUConnBlog (@TheUConnBlog) March 18, 2019
So ESPN screws up and leaks bracket and now decides to move show up two hours without anyone, including teams, getting heads up.
What a joke. https://t.co/DMDfuRG7t5
— Jon Scott (@JonScottTV) March 18, 2019
One school, however, decided to just lean into the leak.
Get to your TVs early!
Something tells us our Chicago fans will be happy. #GoIrish https://t.co/Kin4XzM4CV
— Notre Dame WBB (@ndwbb) March 18, 2019
The men’s tournament dealt with a bracket leak of its own three years ago. At least in that case, while still a huge mess that spoiled things for many, the leak happened minutes before the scheduled selection show, not hours.
The irony is ESPN is extremely strict over employees leaking internal information to the media, and then this happens. Someone in the programming or graphics department is going to have a very, very bad day.
