Re: Math Question

From: eugeneshapiroisapig (mockingbirdstl_at_aol.com)
Date: 03/29/05 

Date: 29 Mar 2005 09:02:13 -0800

so basically the answer is there are a lot of combinations. I suppose
you could use a supercomputer hooked up to a bunch of printers supplied
by a massive amount of paper to print off all possible brackets. But
then you would have so many entries into a contest that it would be
impossible to find the correct entry, unless someone got extremely
lucky.
     Personally, if I was going to pursue a project that attempted to
guarantee a perfect entry, I would use data from past tournaments to
eliminate certain possibilities and thus cut down on calculations. For
instance, as weisman points out, a 16 seed has never defeated a 1 seed.
And the lowest seed to ever advance to a final four I believe was an 11
but I'm not certain on this one. But you get the idea. 4 teams from one
conference have never been in the final four together (I bet CBS would
hate that. especially if it was four teams from the sun belt
conference. packer and vitale would have seizures)
     By the way I hate vitale too. On another message board recently
someone posted a doctored photo of vitale and coach K embracing in a
swimming pool, they both had big smiles on their faces and the caption
read "awesome, baby".