NCAA Tournament Field Set; teams revealed early due to ESPN mishap

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Due to a mistake by ESPN, fans received an earlier than planned viewing of the 64-team 2019 DI NCAA tournament field Monday afternoon. During a discussion of the men’s tournament on a broadcast of “Bracketology” on ESPN, the women’s bracket showed up on the screen instead of the men’s.

ESPN accidentally revealing the NCAA Women’s Tournament bracket on ESPNU almost FOUR HOURS prior to when the selection show was supposed to air. https://t.co/3DTJu5IcBF

— Joe Wright (@Sctvman) March 18, 2019

The inadvertent reveal, approximately four hours before the official “Selection Show,” caused a chain reaction of events as schools scrambled to decide whether or not to reschedule watch parties. The network also moved up the time of the selection show event by two hours causing even more chaos as programs, fans and media needed to revise afternoon schedules that revolved around the bracket reveal.

BREAKING: The NCAA DI Women's Basketball bracket will be officially revealed at 5 PM ET on ESPN2. #ncaaW pic.twitter.com/4O01SwEXKd

— NCAA Women’s Basketball (@ncaawbb) March 18, 2019

Some schools, like the overall No. 1 seed Baylor, kept to their original schedule and watched the post-reveal show which aired the same time as the originally scheduled selection show. Baylor players were in practice when the field became public. The No. 2 seeded-Oregon Ducks, canceled their watch party as some students and fans were unable to watch the rescheduled, pushed up selection show.

The network apologized for the mishap later in the afternoon.