The 2026 edition of March Madness is one of the most hyped in recent years. The viewership is on the rise, with women’s college basketball averaging 227,000 viewers, which is up 3% from 220,000 viewers last season. In a betting preview for the women’s tournament, the data presented was so fundamentally flawed that it drew immediate and widespread criticism from fans who noticed the numbers didn’t add up.

Any sports event is now accompanied by thousands of fans betting on the games. Sites like Kalshi even offer betting on individual events. Accompanied by that comes betting-related content, the odds, and the probabilities. In that same vein, ESPN published a betting preview of the women’s NCAA tournament. However, the numbers in the article were not of women’s teams at all. 

Screenshots taken of the previews reveal that the media house published completely wrong information for teams like UConn, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Western Illinois and many others. For example, the Fighting Irish’s record was 13-18 and 4-14 in conference. But in reality, they went 22-10 and 12-6 in conference. While the article was corrected by ESPN and later taken down, fans caught their mistakes and immediately criticized the company. 

ESPN Accused Of Using AI Generated Content After Major Mistake

“Another day, another embarrassing espn error. they released an article talking about the women’s basketball tournament, but they used the records of the men’s teams. according to them, 1 seed south carolina apparently went 13-19 this year,” pointed out a fan. ESPN has a history of making mistakes. 

Last year before the National Championship game, Dawn Staley criticized the media for focusing their coverage on Paige Bueckers, which puts them at a disadvantage. “Whether you want to believe so or not. Officials see it. It’s all over TikTok. It’s all over SportsCenter,” she said. 

ESPN published an article containing the above quotes and captioned their social media post, “Dawn Staley says the narrative around Paige Bueckers and her quest to win a title has overshadowed South Carolina’s feats. “Staley quoted the article and wrote, “LIES! Fix your headline, please!'” 

In 2019, ESPN mistakenly revealed the NCAA bracket hours before it was actually released. The blunder happened when “Bracketology” returned from a commercial break and graphics of the women’s tournament regions began to appear next to the men’s bracket. ESPN admitted this mistake and put out an apology as well. Now, this mistake adds to their list. And many fans think it is because they use AI to generate it. 

“The only possible explanation for this is that the article is AI generated, which is actually even worse than them mixing up the men’s and women’s records,”  wrote a fan. “So basically this was written by ai then,” pitched in another. 

Initially it seems like it. And the accusation is not without reason. The entire media industry across genres has been caught using AI in the past few years. According to a Thomas Reuters Foundation report from January 2025, 81% already use AI in their journalism. They already use AI to write recaps of multiple sports, including basketball, with a byline reading “ESPN Generative AI Services.” 

They have said that these recaps are checked by humans. There was no human byline on this article as well, with the author simply being “ESPN.” However, an ESPN representative told Awful Announcing that it was not an AI-generated article but a human mistake. 

“Wonder if that could have been an AI-generated article by any chance. Regardless, that’s pretty bogus,” wrote Kentucky On3 reporter Phoenix Stevens. To just understand the gravity of the mistake, betting is huge during March Madness. 

The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates that $3.3 billion will be wagered on this year’s NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in the U.S. So, many of these will be reading this article expecting elite-tier content from an approximately $50 billion brand. When dealt with such mistakes, it affects ESPN’s perception and cracks the trust with the user. 

“(This is) What happens when all their money goes to engagement/ragebait parrots like Stephen A., Pat McAfee, & everyone else like them,” wrote a fan. The controversial figure persona is pretty popular in sports media, not just ESPN. They draw eyes, get clicks and ensure the traffic is always flowing. But that does not cater to the core basketball fan, sometimes it just irritates them. However, that does not mean ESPN is not investing in women’s sports or March Madness. 

It has announced a new look to its March Madness coverage in the early rounds of the tournament this year. That includes on-site reporters at the four early-round locations that will host ABC broadcasts.

During regionals, studio coverage will be sent on the road as part of additional staffing. ESPN will send Christine Williamson, Andraya Carter, and Chiney Ogwumike to one location. Meghan McKeown, Muffet McGraw, and Kelsey Riggs Cuff are at the other. Expanded camera setups, super slow-motion integration among other changes. However, fans will likely care less about those changes than such silly article slips.