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Several Auburn University students are getting to experience March Madness up close and personal.

The students — most of them journalism majors — are in Lexington, Kentucky, to cover Auburn men’s basketball’s NCAA Tournament regional for a variety of media outlets. Daniel Locke (Rivals.com), Vince Wolfram (The Field of 68), Logan Fowler (1819 News) and Patrick Bingham, Luca Flores and Grace Heim (The Auburn Plainsman) are among the hundreds of journalists converging upon historic Rupp Arena for the first two rounds of the men’s NCAA Tournament this weekend.

Locke, a senior journalism major, is covering the tournament for Rivals.com after serving as a reporter for the site’s affiliate, AuburnSports.com, earlier this year. Locke covered the Southeastern Conference Basketball Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, this month for Rivals and will be part of its March Madness coverage team as an Auburn correspondent.

“Being a diehard sports fan my entire life, getting to cover the NCAA Tournament for an outlet like Rivals is a dream come true,” said Locke, who hails from Helena, Alabama. “Being in the position I am as a student would not be possible without our amazing faculty.

“I'd like to thank Dr. Brian Delaney and Dr. Fawad Shah for helping me grow as a reporter. I'd also like to thank student media advisors Brit Bowen and Billy Ferris for everything they have done to help get my career started.”

Wolfram — who recently won Best TV Creative Director at the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Awards Ceremony in New York City — is covering his second NCAA Tournament. The journalism-sports production major also covered Auburn at the event in 2023 and has teamed with Eagle Eye TV Sports Producer Joleigh Cavanagh on the highly successful “Straight Out The Jungle” podcast for The Field of 68 that has featured guests such as Bruce Pearl and Charles Barkley. If Auburn advances to the Sweet Sixteen in Atlanta, Cavanagh will join Wolfram in covering the Tigers.

“For Auburn to be the No. 1 overall seed for the first time in program history and to be in Rupp Arena, the same place the Tigers won the SEC regular season championship just a couple weeks ago, it really puts into perspective how far the program has come in just a couple of years,” said Wolfram, a Louisville, Kentucky, native. “I am so excited to see what this NCAA Tournament has in store for Auburn, and I can’t wait to see the Madness unfold!”

In addition, Flores, Locke and Wolfram are doing an Instagram takeover of the College of Liberal Arts' page during their time in Lexington.

Auburn tips off against Alabama State, its neighbor roughly 50 miles down I-85, at 1:50 p.m. CT on March 20.