LinkedIn's March Madness Bracket

Some of my friends and family that I least expected to create a March Madness bracket this year made one, as well as a social media site that never would have made my top three list of sites to have a bracket: LinkedIn. That's right. The site used "only for professional connections and communication" took time out of its schedule of reminding its soon-to-be college graduate users which of their acquaintances have awesome jobs and that they don't. Of course, they did it in their own LinkedIn way.

In order to make the placements on its bracket (shown below), LinkedIn came up with a "dedication score" using the different alumni groups:

Dedication Score = (# of current students and alumni with the word “basketball” in their profile) / (total # of current students and alumni)

Their prediction of who was going to take it all home? Gonzaga University! That obviously means that they are no longer in the running since the Bulldogs lost to Wichita State. Why am I so happy about this? I can't help that my head gets slightly bigger whenever someone claims that their bracket is bulletproof because of all of the science they made up and used to make it. (You'd think they'd learn by now that there is no science behind March Madness.) My heart is still set on my first favorite college team, the Michigan Wolverines (thanks to my dad), even though everyone told me that I didn't have a chance!*

*Because I work for the University of Georgia Athletic Association and am required to follow all NCAA rules and regulations, I am not allowed to officially participate in the actual March Madness bracket. However, I do print out my own bracket every year just for fun personal use.

Majoring in March Madness

I'll be honest, it has been extremely difficult for me to focus on my academics lately. No, this isn't necessarily because I'm a senior or spring break is over; it's because it's March Madness, ladies and gents. I'm the world's biggest football fan, but when March comes around every year, I start wishing I wasn't only 5'6" and that I had gotten the basketball gene that all of my siblings got but I didn't.

This year, I have an additional wish: to be a part of Sports Link. Sports Link is the group that handles all of the social media behind March Madness, which is actually called "Coke Zero Social Arena." The group is also comprised of undergraduate students along with their graduate assistant and professor from Ball State University. If you've only been paying attention to Twitter lately for #MarchMadness updates like me, you're probably just as surprised.

As a soon-to-be graduate from a school with a top five athletic association and top two journalism school (which I am both a part of), I am beyond jealous of these Ball State kids. I'll be honest, I've never even heard of the school until I started researching March Madness social media this past month. After reading an article about them, I learned that they are fully equipped with a social media monitoring center on campus identical to Turner Broadcasting's digital Event Operations Center. (By the way, my school is also a little over than an hour away from Turner Broadcasting's headquarters in Atlanta.)

I truly believe this setup I've discovered recently proves that social media and sports may be constantly changing and advancing, but both are here to stay; and, when done correctly, both of them combined have a huge effect on current events and our overall culture, which is why both should be carefully studied. Because social media is something that our generation has grown up with (I myself have had at least one social media account since I was 15, and I got it way after all of my other friends), I am not surprised at all that Coke Zero and the NCAA put their trust in a group of college students to conduct their social media activity for this month-long event that draws in so many fans from around the world. What I am surprised about is the fact that so many colleges do not have media, marketing, etc. programs or departments that specialize in sports, which is why I am beyond excited for my journalism school and their new sports media program that will officially open next year (that I will not be able to be a part of since I'm graduating). I may be green in the face with jealousy from all of these programs that I won't be able to participate in as a student, but I am very excited that all of these advancements in sports studies will one day make the world of sports business as competitive as the sports on the court/field/etc. themselves.

Social Media at the NFL Combine

At the NFL Combine, football skills and talent are not the only things that college players are judged on by the professional teams and coaches through tests such as the 40-yard dash. Game strategy and knowledge are tested through an actual pencil and paper exam. Media presence and composure are examined through several press conferences and intense interviews. And character is assessed through not only the effort exemplified by the players throughout the entire grueling process including the personal interviews, but by social media as well.

Because of several scandals caused and/or revealed by social media involving several of these players the past couple of years, including the most noteworthy story involving the catfishing hoax with former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, many NFL coaches and team personnel agree that social media has never been such an important part of the combine process as it is this year. One coach even noted in an interview with USA Today that he has several members of his staff whose jobs are to keep track of every potential players' social media accounts in order to get a better look at who this person really is on and off the field.

While pictures of illegal paraphernalia and activities will obviously contribute to ruining the chances an athlete has of being recruited, coaches have commented that too many "goody-goody" posts can be somewhat annoying as well, such as tweets about getting up at 3 a.m. to work out when the typical combine day doesn't start until later in the morning. Overall, coaches are saying that they want to recruit guys who show that they have a good balance in all acts of their life and that the media will be publishing stories more about what they're doing on the field rather than what they're tweeting about.