For teams on the bubble, Selection Sunday and Selection Monday are hugely anticipated days, as they await the announcement of whether they made the NCAA Tournament field.
Those with automatic bids through conference tournaments and those that know they’ll be dancing also huddle together to find out who they’ll be playing against and where. It’s a huge production, with the men’s selection show shared alternately by CBS and Turner, and the women’s selection show the following day on ESPN.
Unfortunately, the women’s bracket was spoiled by a production error hours before it was supposed to be revealed on the 7 p.m. ET selection show special. ESPNU ran a Bracketology show on Monday afternoon that was supposed to be discussing the men’s bracket, but the graphics package they showed was of the women’s brackets that weren’t supposed to be released until hours later.
@BlakeDuDonis Put the whole thing together in one shot pic.twitter.com/g85udGlv1A
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) March 18, 2019
ESPN PR released a statement apologizing for the error and notes that they will be conducting a review of their process that led to the bracket being put out on the wrong show.
ESPN Statement Regarding the NCAA Women’s Tournament Bracket https://t.co/NpWbMoDCV2 pic.twitter.com/zffGXI6BTx
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) March 18, 2019
It’s not hard to see how this would happen, as ESPN got the bracket and began building graphics, and likely had it saved in the back end where a producer selected the wrong bracket package for the show they were airing. Still, it’s understandable why many would be frustrated by the fun of the bracket reveal being ruined, and it’s understandable why teams would be a bit upset that their selection show watch parties would be spoiled — Oregon went ahead and cancelled their party for tonight.
Today’s selection show watch party at @MattArena has been cancelled.
ESPN accidentally released the bracket early and is currently airing the selection show now instead.
Our apologies to fans who made plans for today's event.
— Oregon Women’s Basketball (@OregonWBB) March 18, 2019
However, those that got in now know they’re in, while those that didn’t can move on. ESPN themselves is a big loser in this as well as they will undoubtedly lose viewers from the brackets getting out early, as they run a hurried selection show on ESPN2 at 5:00 p.m., and the original scheduled broadcast on ESPN at 7:00 p.m. ET.
