Tweet Madness: Who Will Be Crowned the Champ?

The first few rounds took a while because I wanted everyone to see the followers, number of tweets, and various scores that each team received from the different metrics used in this competition. To review what each team received, refer back to the first four posts!

South

Round 3:

Matchup 1: 1 Florida vs. 8 Colorado

Matchup 2: 5 VCU vs. 4 UCLA

Matchup 3: 6 Ohio State vs. 3 Syracuse

Matchup 4: 10 Stanford vs. 13 Eastern Kentucky

Sweet 16:

Matchup 1: 1 Florida vs. 5 VCU

Matchup 2: 3 Syracuse vs. 10 Stanford

Elite 8:

Matchup 1: 1 Florida vs. 3 Syracuse

East

Round 3:

Matchup 1: 1 Virginia vs. 8 Memphis

Matchup 2: 12 Harvard vs. 4 Michigan State

Matchup 3: 6 North Carolina vs. 3 Iowa State

Matchup 4: 7 UConn vs. 2 Villanova

Sweet 16:

Matchup 1: 8 Memphis vs. 4 Michigan State

Matchup 2: 6 North Carolina vs. 7 UConn

Elite 8:

Matchup 1: 4 Michigan State vs. 6 North Carolina

West

Round 3:

Matchup 1: 1 Arizona vs. 9 Oklahoma St.

Matchup 2: 5 Oklahoma vs. 4 San Diego St.

Matchup 3: 6 Baylor vs. 3 Creighton

Matchup 4: 7 Oregon vs. 2 Wisconsin

Sweet 16:

Matchup 1: 1 Arizona vs. 5 Oklahoma

Matchup 2: 6 Baylor vs. 2 Wisconsin

Elite 8:

Matchup 1: 1 Arizona vs. 2 Wisconsin

Midwest

Round 3:

Matchup 1: 16 Cal Poly vs. 8 Kentucky

Matchup 2: 12 N.C. State vs. 4 Louisville

Matchup 3: 11 Tennessee vs. 3 Duke

Matchup 4: 7 Texas vs. 2 Michigan

Sweet 16:

Matchup 1: 8 Kentucky vs. 12 N.C. State

Matchup 2: 3 Duke vs. 2 Michigan

Elite 8:

Matchup 1: 8 Kentucky vs. 2 Michigan

—–

Final Four

Matchup 1: 3 Syracuse vs. 6 North Carolina

Matchup 2: 2 Wisconsin vs. 2 Michigan

Finals

6 North Carolina vs. 2 Michigan

Analysis

Congrats to UNC – our Twitter Madness Winner! Although UNC will unfortunately not see a championship win on the courts this year, its Twitter showed prowess throughout the competition. With over 150,000+ followers and 10,000+ tweets, its reach is ginormous and college basketball fans are signing on to see what the account has to say.

Throughout the bracket, if two teams seemed evenly matched, I gave the tie-break to the team with the most Twitter followers. In fact, many times that a team had more followers, the other team actually had more tweets. I felt that the number of Twitter followers was a more crucial statistic because more followers means that more people/accounts want to see what the account is tweeting, regardless of its frequency. Additionally, teams that did not have unique basketball accounts did not make it far, even if they got lucky in Round 2 by being matched with a team that also did not have a unique basketball account.

It is not surprising that the teams that at least reached the Elite 8 in this bracket were the teams that are not only known for their basketball programs, but also their dominant athletic programs as a whole. Florida, Syracuse, Michigan State, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Duke are all teams that more or less consistently excel in basketball from year-to-year, and as a result, college basketball fans, who are the within the prime Twitter demographic of ages 18-29, have rewarded these high power teams by wanting to follow them via Twitter and social media.

Until next year, folks!