ESPN Apologizes After Women's NCAA Tournament Bracket Leaked Before Selection Show

ESPN apologized after it showed the women's NCAA tournament bracket before the official selection show.

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ESPN apologized after it leaked the women's NCAA tournament bracket on Monday afternoon ahead of the official reveal. 

According to screenshots first from Blake DuDonis, the bracket appeared on ESPNU. The selection show was then moved up to 5 p.m. ET after the bracket appeared to be leaked. ESPN then released a statement, extending an apology to the NCAA and women's basketball community.

"In working with the NCAA to prepare for tonight’s Women’s Selection Special we received the bracket, similar to years past. In the midst of our preparation, the bracket was mistakenly posted on ESPNU. We deeply regret the error and extend our apology to the NCAA and the women’s basketball community. We will conduct a thorough review of our process to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future. We will now broadcast the full bracket at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and the regularly-scheduled show on ESPN at 7 p.m."

The NCAA also released a statement. 

Official statement on the early reveal of the 2019 NCAA DI Women's Basketball bracket: #ncaaW pic.twitter.com/kwoQ4Bw0SZ

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 18, 2019

The bracket shows Louisville, Notre Dame, Mississippi State and Baylor as No. 1 seeds. Louisville is set to face Robert Morris on Friday, while Mississippi State will face Southern on Friday. Notre Dame will play Bethune-Cookman on Saturday, and Baylor will face Abilene Christian on Saturday.

In what can only be described as remarkable, the #NCAAW bracket was just on ESPNU by mistaken. I’ve managed to grab three sections of it if anyone else wants to help fill it out.

Spoiler: UCF & Tennessee are IN pic.twitter.com/xzpKpGpjdT

— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 18, 2019

Here is the #NCAAW bracket. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/D2pLbBVAre

— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 18, 2019

#NCAAW bracket (2/2)

They cut off before bottom half showed but in the Albany region:

6 UCLA vs 11 TN
3 MD vs 14 Radford
Sat
7 Rutgers vs 10 Buffalo
2 UConn vs 15 Towson pic.twitter.com/exlOV7Wlba

— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 18, 2019

Here is your #NCAAW bracket in its entirety pic.twitter.com/5KtmekGvR4

— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 18, 2019

This isn't the first time an NCAA tournament bracket could have been leaked. In 2016, a complete leaked men's bracket started appearing on Twitter around 50 minutes into the two-hour selection show. The show had only gotten through two regions, but the bracket proved to be legit as the two other regions were filled out.