How Vegas Sees March Madness

“The stats don’t lie.” Well, I’m inclined to agree with Ken White, the chief operating officer of a Vegas sports book. With the virtual mountain of data out there for free to us number crunchers to play with, the tough part isn’t believing whether the data is valid; it’s putting it together in such a way that it helps me fill out a winning NCAA tournament bracket.

According to Mr. White’s numbers, Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech team shouldn’t have made the tournament. According to mine, the Red Raiders have a better chance of upsetting their #7 seeded opponent than a team that starts with a “C” and ends with a “reighton.” I’m just saying.

As a lifelong bracket junkie, long before Lunardi coined his now-famous term Bracketology, I’ve built spreadsheets the size of Kilimanjaro hoping to better my odds of winning our family’s annual bracket challenge.

Has it worked? Only time will tell, but since I’m enjoying the ride, it’s all good. If you’ve ever got an extra 17 hours on your hands, let me know and I’ll walk you through the data build process. No disclaimer is needed as only true stat geeks should apply.