CBS gaffe left Northern Iowa unaware its name was called on NCAA Tournament Selection Show

The Northern Iowa-St. John’s NCAA Tournament matchup was announced within a few minutes of Sunday’s fast-moving March Madness Selection Show on CBS, and the UNI squad in Cedar Falls was reactionless as CBS showed a camera shot of the team right after the announcement.

“Way to go, Panthers!” CBS host Adam Zucker said, ahead of laughter from the studio crew. “Here it comes! Here it comes! That’s alright! We’ll move on.”

Here’s what Northern Iowa’s “reaction” looked like on the CBS NCAA Tournament Selection Show, unaware of its matchup and destination being determined.

Adam Zucker and the CBS crew mocked the non-celebration. 🏀📺🎙️ #MarchMadness https://t.co/davtxz2u7i pic.twitter.com/2C4yl8LXOv

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 16, 2026

Well, the Panthers didn’t celebrate because they had no idea their name had been called on the Selection Show.

According to Mark Woodley of KWWL (NBC Waterloo, IA affiliate), “CBS had sent [Northern Iowa] a direct feed that was supposed to be faster than the broadcast, however, someone at the network punched up something wrong, so all they saw was a feed of Hofstra celebrating when their selection came up.”

UNI didn’t actually hear their name called. CBS had sent them a direct feed that was supposed to be faster than the broadcast, however, someone at the network punched up something wrong, so all they saw was a feed of Hofstra celebrating when their selection came up.

— Mark Woodley (@MarkWoodleyTV) March 15, 2026

Woodley posted a video on X of how Northern Iowa learned of its matchup and destination. In the video, you can hear audio of Hofstra celebrating on the big screen that the Panthers were watching. Northern Iowa’s Leon Bond III noticed on a side TV that the Panthers’ game had been revealed to the rest of America on CBS.

You can hear the audio from Hofstra which was celebrating on the big screen at the time (which was weird as they hadn’t been selected yet), then Leon Bond noticed the bracket on one of the side TV’s that was on the broadcast. https://t.co/TQRTfCOo9u pic.twitter.com/ZIJ4zwst4z

— Mark Woodley (@MarkWoodleyTV) March 15, 2026

And what continued to make this situation weird was that, as Woodley notes, Hofstra hadn’t been announced yet on the CBS broadcast. CBS revealed the Hofstra-Alabama matchup roughly 20 minutes after the Northern Iowa-St. John’s announcement.

When Northern Iowa’s name was called on CBS, this is the Hofstra celebration the team seemingly saw.

Hofstra’s placement wasn’t revealed until roughly 20 minutes after Northern Iowa’s was on CBS. pic.twitter.com/yIQ9WOzJhB

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 16, 2026

So, that was an unfortunate and bizarre way for Northern Iowa to learn of its NCAA Tournament game.

Either way, the MVC Tournament champion Panthers are dancing, and they will take on St. John’s in Friday night’s NCAA Tournament first-round action in San Diego.