The Perfect Bracket

I am following Mathalicious on Twitter, where I found an interesting tweet about an article from the New York Times. This article is titled Mathematicians Are Hoping Their Calculations Add Up to the Perfect Bracket. According to this article, 50 mathematicians got together at the National Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan, where they used linear algebra and computer codes to predict the outcome of all 67 games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. They estimated that the odds of picking every winner were one in nine quintillion. Tim Chartier, a math professor at Davidson College, gave a presentation of the mathematical models he uses for choosing winners. People were willing to pay as much as $100 to get in. Chartier has been developing his bracket program since 2009. Several of his students have finished in the 90th percentile of ESPN's annual contest and three students finished in the 96th to 99th percentiles. I found this article extremely interesting. With such absurd probability of every getting a perfect bracket, it is amazing how well Chartier and his students have done. I think it is great for him to pass along his methods and ideas with others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/sports/ncaabasketball/mathematicians-are-hoping-their-calculations-add-up-to-the-perfect-bracket.html?_r=0