March Madness brackets

By Olivia Pastrick ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament has been around since 1939 and became the current field of 68 teams in 2011 and the women’s tournament started in 1982, according to the NCAA. For basketball fans and those who could not care less alike, filling out brackets to predict the winners of the 63 total games played after the ‘First Four’ games is a common competition during March Madness, with over 20 million brackets being filled out for the men’s tournament this year, according to ESPN.

In the history of March Madness, there has never been a verified bracket that has been 100% correct throughout the entire tournament.If there has never been a perfect bracket,is there still a point to filling out one? I think that a lot of the fun from making brackets and competing with friends,family and even celebrities is fueled by the fact that nobody will be perfect.According to ESPN, brackets can earn a maximum of 320 points per round,earning points for each game that is predicted correctly.Because early incorrect guesses can lead to automatic losses down the line,upsets in which a lower-seeded team

Corrections beats a higher-seeded team can ruin brackets only a short time into the tournament. The NCAA’s seed system, which ultimately decides teams’ placement in the bracket, is determined by the Selection Committee, according to the NCAA. The possibility of upsets—whether correctly or incorrectly guessed—makes filling out brackets and competing with others fun.

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There is a dark side of the competitiveness that comes as a result of brackets.According to The Sports Notebook, players such as Royce White,who played for the Iowa State Cyclones from 2011-2012, received death threats after his team lost to the Montana Grizzlies in the 2012 NCAA tournament. The pressure that is placed upon these athletes is already immense throughout their regular season games; they are playing at a high level, and fans often expect players to always perform their best, which is not reasonable. This pressure is increased dramatically during March Madness when people are betting large amounts of money on the success of these young players. In this year’s tournament, 1-seed Purdue lost to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson, becoming the second ever 1-seeded team to lose in the first round to a 16-seed, according to PBS. Following the loss, fans were furious, calling them “frauds” on Twitter, according to Bleacher Report. While this loss busted my bracket as well, I think it is unfair to bash student-athletes on social media for losing a game. reporters have to cover more and more stories to make up for those gaps, AI could be the answer tomeetingdeadlinesandgeneratingmorestories. But this could also mean the downfall of the industry. In the case of CNET, there could be whole articles written by AI, which introduce issues of accuracy and ethics. ChatGPT itself states in Pavlik’s article that AI can increase the risk of bias and errors in reporting, any articles written using AI require careful oversight and editingofcontentandthegeneratordoesnothave any copyright or legal restrictions.In short,AI in journalismisadouble-edgedsword.Thistoolcan improve the reporting process if used correctly, but it also takes a seasoned reporter/editor to handle any issues that may be introduced by AI. On top of these issues, there is a certain human aspect to journalistic writing that I think cannot be replicated using AI, regardless of whether or not the program passes the Turing Test (a test developed by Alan Turing to see if a human can tell if something is either human or machine,accordingtoPavlik).Partofjournalism is giving a voice to people and communities, whichcanincludesourcesrangingfromexperts tofirst-handaccountsofanevent,andjournalists often incorporate their own observations or even write stories in a more narrative format to help paint a picture for their readers. To me, good journalism—while objective and informative—is about the human nature of storytelling and everything that comes with that. It should read like a person is telling and narrating that story, and all of the experiences a reporter has creates that sense of humanity. I do not think that it is something that can be achieved with AI.

A more positive aspect of the widespread influence of people making brackets is the increased coverage of March Madness games, especially for the women’s tournament. Although there is a dramatic difference in the number of brackets made for the men’s and women’s tournaments—over 20 million and over 2 million, respectively, according to the NCAA—I think that the excitement surrounding brackets is one of the reasons for increased ratings for women’s basketball games.According to Front Office Sports, the 2022 women’s championship game peaked at 5.91 million viewers, an 18% increase from the championship game from the year before.

Overall, I think creating brackets and putting them up against others’ is a fun way to compete and enjoy basketball. Although according to the NCAA, the likelihood of someone creating a perfect bracket for someone who knows nothing about basketball is 1 in 9.2 quintillion, but there is still a thrill in trying to get as close to perfect as possible and watching as your bracket is either broken or strengthened with every game played.

The future of print journalism as technology advances is something that has been up for debate for the past couple of decades. Personally, I think print journalism will continue to prosper and evolve, just like it always has. But in order to do so, we must incorporate these new technologies into the reporting process without losing a grasp on the craft itself. AI can be a helpful tool for journalists, but it must be used with caution and expertise. Journalism is about reporting the news fairly and accurately and we cannot always count on computers to understand that. I dread the thought of a future where all news is written by computers,but until then,we must learn how to work with new technology to preserve the future of this industry.

By Lindsey Wormuth DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Many colleges surrounding the University of Indianapolis have Greek life, but the question is: Should UIndy have it? All around the United States, there are colleges that offer Greek life for students to get an opportunity to make friends and build connections. Greek life consists of fraternities and sororities. A fraternity or sorority is a brotherhood or sisterhood formed around common goals and aspirations, according to Ball State University. According to Campus Explorer, “As any Greek life devotee will tell you, the friends you make at your house are strong, lifelong connections. The words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ are not taken lightly, and fellow Greeks take care of each other whenever possible, whether socially or professionally.” history of Greek life on campus, “... Greek life has not been a physical part of UIndy’s campus. He said that at UIndy’s campus, there has not been strong enthusiasm or opposition to having fraternities and sororities in the past.” I do not see UIndy entertaining the idea of Greek life because we are a small university.

The University of Indianapolis has a current student population of 5,600, according to the university’s website. Having such a small student population and trying to have Greek life does not make sense because there are not that many people.

With the university offering many Registered Student Organizations, Division II sports and intramurals for their student population to get involved, I think that if they added Greek life there would not be enough people for it to feel like an actual sorority or fraternity. Although we do not have traditional Greek life, there are two chapters you can join. According to UIndy’s website, Alpha Psi Omega, a chapter that works with the theater department.

If the university ever decided to establish Greek life, students would pay a fee to be in a sorority and fraternity.

Those fees are for annual dues, social events and possibly housing.

What do you think?

Send your letters to the editor or other correspondence to: reflector@uindy.edu

According to The Albion Pleiad, smaller schools have less chapters and raise less money for their philanthropies, unlike big schools. Do not get me wrong, I think it would be fun to be able to have the opportunity to join a sorority or fraternity here at UIndy, but there is no space on campus for housing them and no way of knowing how many people would even be interested.

According to an article written by The Reflector Business Manager Michael Harrington about the

According to Edmit, experts estimate that the fees are between three to five figures at some chapters. UIndy has already increased tuition a few times in the past couple years and, on top of that, having to pay to be a part of Greek life seems like a lot to me.

Overall, I think that the university is not equipped to have Greek life. The campus is small and located within 10 minutes of the city with nowhere to put houses for the Greek life. With the campus size being under 6,000 students, and there being many RSOs to join as well as other extracurricular activities, I think that adding Greek life would do more harm than good.