The NCAA is looking into how its NCAA tournament bracket leaked on the Internet before it was unveiled during CBS's Selection Sunday show.
"It was surprising and very regrettable," Division I men's basketball chairman Joe Castiglione said on a conference call Sunday night. "I wasn’t made aware of it until just before I was walking onto the set for live shot with CBS. ...
"The NCAA goes to great lengths to prevent the tournament field from being revealed early."
Castiglione said the NCAA took its "usual measures" to protect against a leak. The bracket leaked about halfway through CBS's two-hour special.
"We’re still looking into the matter," Castiglione said. "We take it seriously. We hope to zero in on how it occurred."
Not everyone was confounded by the leak, however.
Pittsburgh senior Sterling Smith was able to set the Panthers at ease early during the selection show, sharing the leaked bracket that showed Pitt was the 10th seed in the East Region and would face seventh-seeded Wisconsin in St. Louis on Friday.
“We were wondering what we were going to do for that entire time; all of a sudden we knew rather quickly,” coach Jamie Dixon said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
