If you’ve poked around my site much, you probably figured out that I like me some stats. I love some good, geeky analysis of numbers. If I didn’t have an actual job and family to take away from my critical Dave Sez time, this site would be wall-to-wall numbers. Fortunately for me (and you), there are guys like Ken Pomeroy (and many others) who have less life than I do (presumably) and who put out some great statistical analyses and power ratings.
One of those number geeks who I linked to in my ACC Expanded Standings is Mike Greenfield, who (with Thomas Federico) publishes his numbers at TeamRankings.com. Mike has built a very cool analytical tool that you can use (if you fork over a little change) to help you build your NCAA Pool brackets. He takes his power ratings along with a ton of other factors like Distance Traveled, Last 10 Games, Average Margin Of Victory, etc. to help you decide who should win just about any matchup in the tourney. Not sure who would win your predicted Regional Final matchup between Duke and Texas? Run the numbers. You can take their preset weights or you can tweak them because you think (for example) that Duke plays equally well anywhere, but Texas doesn’t travel well.
Another cool feature is a rundown of past games with similar matchups. It looks like their database goes back at least ten years, which is pretty cool. It’s like a history lesson mixed in with your crunching.
So, check it out. See if you can’t use actual data to beat that secretary in Accountz Reeceevable who beats you every year using her “places I’ve been or would like to visit” methodology.
Full disclosure – Thomas Federico emailed me about this tool and they have an affiliate program that I signed up for. So, yes I could potentially earn a little money from this promotion, but I’d have linked to it anyway. And seriously, I don’t think we’re talking much money here. I just don’t want to be accused of being a soulless shill like, say, Billy “Mr. Cash” Packer or Dick “You Want Me To Pitch Your Product? That’s Awesome, Baby!” Vitale. (p.s. Corporate America, I’m kidding. Call me, we’ll do lunch.)