NCAA Investigating Bracket Leak

People on the internet can be impatient. Case in point, Sunday's debacle of a program.

In an attempt to squeeze more ad dollars out of an already ridiculously long studio show announcing the selections to the NCAA Men's basketball tournament, CBS doubled the length of their "Selection Show" this year to two hours long.

ESPN reports that this was the 35th selection show on CBS. The first show was broadcast in March 1982. The show was 30 minutes until 2001, when it was extended to an hour. This year's was the first show expanded to two hours.

As the show reached it's halfway point, an image began circulating online that read "Spoiler Alert: Full Bracket". At the time of it's release half of the bracket had been officially revealed on CBS. The leak matched that half and called the other half exactly right.

The NCAA has said it is looking into this matter.

"We go through great lengths to prevent the tournament field from being revealed early, and the NCAA took its usual measures to protect this from happening. Unfortunately and regrettably, the bracket was revealed prior to our broadcast partners' having the opportunity to finish unveiling it," the NCAA said. "We take this matter seriously, and we are looking into it."

Oh no, your broadcast partners had the opportunity to unveil it, they were just taking their sweet time while suckering advertisers into paying for them to blather on on screen. All the while, America rolled their eyes and wished it would just be over so they could start filling out their brackets. Their wish was granted around 6:15 eastern time.

For my money, in a world where information is available at the drop of a hat and people are impatient enough, extending an already drab hour long selection show into two hours clearly angered people to the point where a way was found to leak the bracket online. These Samaritans saved everyone some of their Sunday, though maybe not their sanity as we were forced to watch Charles Barkley try to navigate a touch screen during the show.

I feel like there's a lesson to be learned here for the NCAA, CBS and everyone who's brain child it was to extend the program. If something is so simple and can be revealed in 15-20 minutes maximum, don't try to make it two hours long or the internet will push back and ruin your program.