BEST WAY TO FILL OUT YOUR NCAA BRACKETS

Sheldon H. Jacobson, a data science professor at the University of Illinois, has tips for filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket:
– He says you should pick the top-seeded team from each region as the Final Four contestants and work backwards from there. Top seeds are more likely to reach the Final Four than any other teams, statistically speaking.
– If you’re submitting multiple brackets to boost your chances, diversify your brackets as much as possible to maximize your chances.
– There are more than 9 quintillion possible bracket combinations. Picking a perfect bracket, with all 63 games correct, is extremely unlikely, even when submitting multiple brackets.
* Let me see if I’ve got this straight. The better teams are more likely to win? And the more teams I bet on, the better my chances are that one of them will win? This information could turn the entire betting industry on its ear!
* I’m reading that one sentence as “There are more than 9 quintillion ways you can put together a losing bracket combination.”
* I’m going to save the brain damage and do what I always do. Put the lists up on the wall and throw darts.
* I’m willing to bet Sheldon H. Jacobson has tenure at the University of Illinois, with research like this.
* We could have gotten much better science from Sheldon Cooper.