Grady Newsource and Carmical Sports Media Institute students were in the middle of the Madness this March.
The University of Georgia sent students to the 2026 Women’s NCAA Tournament through a partnership with USA Today Sports to cover the first and second weekends of March Madness, from March 20 to March 31.
Students covering the first- and second-round games were in Chapel Hill, N.C., at the University of North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee, at Vanderbilt University; and Columbia, S.C., at the University of South Carolina.
During the second weekend, 10 students split into two groups of five were sent to Ft. Worth, Texas and Sacramento, California to cover the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight rounds of the tournament.
Students were tasked with writing feature stories and creating social media content for USA Today. These stories ranged from sisters playing on the court with each other to the quality of the rims to artwork created by players off the court and everything in between. In the end, the 21 students produced 61 stories for USA Today.
Before they left
Grady Newsource broke down the path to the Sweet 16 for Georgia’s men’s and women’s teams. Neither team of Bulldogs went past the first round. The men lost to St. Louis, while the women lost to Virginia.
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Little also produced a “Day in the Life” vlog to show travelers what a day on the go would look like for a traveler heading through Hartsfield-Jackson that weekend.
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On Site
Once the students arrived, the content started flowing. From social media reels to stories, students produced stories day in and day out.
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Back in Athens
After the event, Grady Newsource reporter Hunter Jones hosted a segment featuring Newsource reporter Jack Little and Carmical Sports Media Institute reporter Erin Kirby for a round table to discuss the trip to Sacramento and the upcoming Final Four.
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Jack Little is a journalism major at the University of Georgia within the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
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