march madness bracket picks

TeamRankings.com today announced BracketBrains 2007, a web-based service that uses powerful statistical technology to help NCAA basketball fans make smarter 2007 March Madness bracket pool picks. A free demonstration of BracketBrains is available now.
"Conventional wisdom regarding how to make good NCAA bracket picks is often wrong, and it is easily disproved by analyzing historical data," says Mike Greenfield, a Stanford-trained computational scientist and founder of TeamRankings.com. "For example, personalities from media outlets such as ESPN and CBS Sportsline love to discuss how teams with strong end-of-season momentum are well positioned for success in the NCAA tournament. In fact, 'streaking' tournament teams have underperformed expectations when one considers the historical performance of similarly seeded teams."
BracketBrains is unique not only because of its powerful technology, but also because it puts the user in control "Unfortunately," adds Greenfield, "when it comes to making March Madness picks, very few college basketball fans have the technical aptitude, data, or free time to perform a detailed statistical analysis of every possible NCAA tournament bracket matchup."
To help NCAA basketball fans make more educated bracket choices, Greenfield and his company created BracketBrains.com. The web site touched a nerve with guess-weary office pool entrants last year, attracting thousands of March Madness fans in the days after the 2006 NCAA tournament bracket was announced by the NCAA Selection Committee.
Hidden beneath a simply designed interface, BracketBrains' advanced predictive technology incorporates both 2007 season statistics and more than a decade of historical NCAA tournament information. The service lets users analyze any potential matchup between two 2007 NCAA tournament teams, and generates a variety of predictions (such as each team's odds to win and the expected margin of victory) based on user-configurable settings.
"BracketBrains is unique not only because of its powerful technology, but also because it puts the user in control," says Tom Federico, general manager of TeamRankings.com. "Using BracketBrains is like having a statistical genius always by your side, guiding and coaching you to make more informed March Madness picks. Best of all, it's powerful, simple, and fun to use."
While Federico maintains that winning one's 2007 March Madness bracket pool always will require a little luck, as he puts it, "it takes a lot less luck to win your office pool if you get smart about your picks and use a tool like BracketBrains."
At the very least, Greenfield and Federico are certain that the days of coin flipping and media brainwashing are over for their BracketBrains customers. "If you're relying on the advice of your favorite sportscasters to help you fill out your 2007 March Madness bracket sheet," quips Greenfield, "your chances of winning your bracket pool are probably doomed from the start."
About TeamRankings.com
TeamRankings.com was launched in 2000 by Mike Greenfield, a Stanford-trained mathematician and sports enthusiast. Today, sports fans turn to TeamRankings.com for unique, data-driven content and services that help them better analyze and understand the games they love. From power rankings and predictions to innovative match-up analysis tools such as BracketBrains, information from TeamRankings.com lets sports fans around the world get smart about the game. TeamRankings.com is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, please