By Last Updated on June 5, 2014
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!
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