March used to be a banner month for the Big Ten. In the first two decades of this century, no league was better at maximizing its opportunities in the men’s NCAA Tournament. From 2000 to 2019, the Big Ten reached 16 Final Fours, most of any conference, and 48 Sweet 16s, two shy of the […]
Mel Tucker was ready. His Michigan State football team had just delivered a statement win, rallying from 16 points down to beat rival Michigan 37-33. The Spartans had soared to No. 5 in the AP Top 25 poll and would be unveiled at No. 3 in the season’s first College Football Playoff rankings. And their […]
It’s the first week of the men’s NCAA Tournament. Your team is on a roll, having won its past 14 games, along with regular-season and conference tournament championships. That leads to a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which means it should be favored, and the game will be your team’s best opportunity to […]
The best men’s basketball team in the Big Ten Conference over the past quarter century is in the throes of its worst year since the first season of its esteemed coach, so you could be forgiven for assuming that the rest of the conference might also struggle. Instead, the Big Ten hasn’t missed a beat. […]
Though there are no actual games to be played, FiveThirtyEight is still taking a shot at a little March Madness. We built an NCAA Tournament bracket, using ESPN’s Bracketology, and we’re simulating the results of each game by using a simple “100-sided dice roll” against our forecast probabilities. We’ve played out our first and second […]