Feb 23 2012

NCAA Lets Facebook Fans Pick March Madness Field

By Sam Laird


It’s an annual rite for college basketball fans to grumble about how they would have done a better job than the NCAA’s official selection committee when picking the March Madness tournament field.

This year, a team of ten Facebook-savvy fans gets a chance to prove what they know, and demystify the selection process for others, thanks to a first-of-its-kind NCAA contest.

Announced today, the Super 10 contest winners will travel to Atlanta for Selection Sunday to make their picks using official data while using social media to document their experience.

The winners were chosen after submitting 30-second videos demonstrating their passion and basketball knowledge to the NCAA’s March Madness Facebook Page. In Atlanta, they’ll attend the ACC conference tournament, tour the Turner Sports broadcast studios where March Madness coverage will take place, and be given an in-depth primer on how teams are selected for the field.

Then they’ll adjourn to a war room with some former members of the official committee and create their own bracket to be posted to Facebook and NCAA.com an hour before the actual version is released on March 11.

“One push this year is to make the process more transparent,” Jeff Hathaway, chair of the NCAA’s selection committee, told Mashable. “We’ve done these mock selections for members of the media, college coaches and broadcast talent, but now to give these 10 fans an opportunity will be a tremendous experience for them and a great opportunity to shed some light on how it actually works.”

Colin Casey of Jersey City is one of the chosen fan committee members. An MBA student interested in sports business, Casey said he’s excited to get both a fan and professional perspective on the inner workings of one of American sports’ most popular events. He also said he plans to tweet photos and thoughts throughout the weekend using the #Super10 hashtag, “for everyone else out there who is just as curious as to exactly how this process works.”

The unique and innovative window into Selection Sunday wouldn’t have been possible to pull off before platforms like Facebook and Twitter became a major piece of sports fans’ lives, according to Dave Moll, who helps manage the NCAA’s digital operations for Turner Sports.

“It’s definitely all based in social media,” Moll said.

Which events would you like to see leverage social media for similar behind-the-curtain looks through fans’ eyes? Let us know in the comments.

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Categories: NCAA, Sports, facebook, march madness
Mar 17 2011

Internet Fans Project Syracuse, Duke, Kansas & Wisconsin in Final Four

By Todd Wasserman


Syracuse, Duke, Kansas and Wisconsin are already front runners for the Final Four — in Internet buzz at least.

March Madness is just beginning, but these four teams topped the positive online buzz rankings, according to Zeta Interactive. The agency analyzed about 200 million blogs, message boards and social media websites looking for keywords related to each of the 68 first-round teams. (For instance, “I have Duke winning my bracket” would count as a positive mention, while “I don’t think Duke will make it past the Sweet 16,” is a negative.)

Zeta’s rankings (see charts below), sometimes upend conventional wisdom. For instance, Ohio State, which is the No. 1 seed in the East Region, is rated fourth in Internet buzz, after Syracuse, Kentucky and North Carolina, thanks to an association of such “cluster words” as “difficult,” “long” and “overrated.”

Zeta also picks Gonzaga, Utah State and Richmond as favored “upset” teams this year.

This report is hardly the final word, though. Advertising Age, working with NetBase, came out with its own buzz rankings, which picks a different Final Four (and, unlike Zeta, projects a winner — Duke). To its credit, Zeta last year projected the actual winner, Duke, accurately, but had Duke facing off with Michigan State, rather than Butler in the finals.

Using similar methodology, Zeta also projected The Social Network as the Academy Award winner for best picture (The King’s Speech actually won) but correctly picked the best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best director winners.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamkaz

More About: basketball, NCAA, Zeta Interactive

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Categories: NCAA, News, Sports, Zeta Interactive, basketball
Mar 17 2011

HOW TO: Keep Up With March Madness on the Social Web

By Todd Olmstead


This year, March Madness is an even bigger dance than in the past, both figuratively and literally. First, the NCAA announced it was expanding the field from 65 teams to 68, which is why the past two nights have seen some “First Round” action in the form of two play-in games each night. With the final field of 64 now set, the traditional tournament is ready to tip off.

The coverage has also expanded from the NCAA’s past agreement that only gave CBS exclusive television rights. The collegiate athletics governing body now partners with CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV to televise all the games. In the past, viewers became frustrated because CBS chose which game to show. The new setup ensures that each simultaneous game will be played on a different channel, which means the viewer now has control.

For people who prefer to watch on the web, once again all games will be streamed live for free at March Madness on Demand. This is huge for all the people stuck working in an office who might otherwise have taken a sick day in past years. But the big win for online viewers? This year, the MMoD mobile apps are also offering free streaming. As I wrote this, I was watching Wednesday night’s first-round game on my iPhone. The downside is that it doesn’t look like the service has expanded beyond Apple platforms, so Android and BlackBerry users are out of luck.

As awesome as that expanded viewing experience is, we often want a richer layer than just viewing can provide, which is where social media comes into play. To enhance your March Madness experience, here are some resources to stay on top of all the action.

Social Hub

The NCAA and Coke Zero have teamed up to create the Social Arena, an online space devoted to combining the tournament with social media. You’ll find Twitter updates from broadcast experts, all of the official handles and hashtags of each school in the tourney and a ton of extra information and social stats. It’s a great integration of social media into a real-time sporting event.

Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without Facebook, where it is running a Social Bracket, based on the number of “Likes” each team in the tournament receives.

Brackets

For many, filling out an NCAA tournament bracket and predicting the winner is a rite of spring. Hopefully by now you’ve got yours completed, but it isn’t too late. Many media organizations offer the chance to compete for free, either by joining up with friends in a group or just being part of the big crowd.

Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick ‘Em is once again offering $1 million if anyone can come up with a perfect bracket. That’s highly unlikely, but the overall winner does win $10,000.

There’s no prize for the perfect bracket at ESPN Tournament Challenge, but the contest will give $10,000 to the overall winner. You’ve also got a chance to win $5,000 for coming in second.

CBS Bracket Challenge isn’t offering any cash. Instead, you can win a trip to the 2012 Final Four. In addition, the game works as a Facebook app for easy social integration.

And for the chance to win a Samsung Galaxy 4G, AOL Sporting News (formerly FanHouse) has teamed up with T-Mobile for its bracket challenge. It also offers you the Facebook option, as well as the chance to stack your results up against your friends and participating sports celebrities such as Troy Aikman and Gary Payton.

Twitter

Twitter is a great tool for following live events, so what better than a tournament that lasts three weeks? In addition to the NCAA’s official March Madness account and its more general Basketball account, there are a ton of college hoops experts online so you can get your fix during and leading up to the games.

Of course, ESPN’s Dick Vitale is a famous TV sports personality, but you can follow the rest of the Worldwide Leader’s college hardwood experts like Andy Katz, with this list.

You can also follow Yahoo’s NCAA coverage on Twitter or keep up with its blog, The Dagger.

Other places you may want to check out include CBS and the multitude of bloggers at SB Nation.

Check in with The New York Times college hoops blog, The Quad, run by Pete Thamel, for some excellent reporting as well.

What other social tools will you be using to follow March Madness? Let us know in the comments.

Interested in more Sports resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Pinopic

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