Selection Sunday is a national holiday for many sports fans and, if nothing else, it kicks off the always entertaining college basketball marathon that is March Madness. For years, the reveal of the bracket was considered to be a virtually flawless product and, well, that made sense in that everyone wants to see what teams are headed where and which teams are inevitably snubbed from the 68-team field.
However, the 2018 version was already going to be different in that it was moving from CBS to TBS for the first time and not everyone was thrilled with that particular decision. Still, the real heat came when, at the top of the broadcast, the decision was made to list the auto-bid recipients in alphabetical order as if the internet, or any other information source, did not exist.
https://twitter.com/DanWeiner/status/972956572228911115
You are literally reading off a list of 32 teams that is readily available on the Internet.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) March 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/alex_kirshner/status/972956364933877760
And, on top of that, there were apparent audio issues.
If this were the lede to a story, it would be: "The NCAA Tournament is in March."
Thanks for starting the show sharing info we already know. And with bad audio!
— CJ Moore (@CJMooreHoops) March 11, 2018
The audio/video is synced like Kung Pow! Enter The Fist
— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) March 11, 2018
After that painful exercise was complete, the move to announce the entire 68-team field, in alphabetical order, before placing the teams in their actual brackets did not exactly generate universal approval.
https://twitter.com/Sam_Vecenie/status/972957185633173506
Is it just me or is it wack that you now have to know the alphabet to know which teams didn’t get into the tournament
— Jeremy Woo (@JeremyWoo) March 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/AndyGlockner/status/972957978922856448
TV EXEC: “we’re terrified of the bracket leaking before we announce it, and we can’t just announce it right at 6 because we have ad space to sell”
SOMEONE WITH BAD IDEAS: “i got it"
— Bill DiFilippo (@billdifilippo) March 11, 2018
Finally, there was even a live studio audience… for some reason.
I, like thousands of you, had been clamoring for it for decades. Finally, FINALLY we got a live studio audience for the selection show.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) March 11, 2018
It seems almost impossible to mess up this particular broadcast but, on Sunday, the good folks at the NCAA and TBS seemingly did just that.
Taped Delay Olympics > This Selection Sunday Show.
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) March 11, 2018
Gotta love when TV execs take a revered tradition and tinker with it for no good reason.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) March 11, 2018
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show was fantastic. A perfect product. That no longer is the case.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) March 11, 2018
The show will go on and, when Thursday arrives, much of the heat about this potential calamity will have faded. Still, nothing went well with the 2018 selection show and that means the 2019 edition will have a bit of extra scrutiny.
