Your Can't-Miss NCAA Bracket for 2011

Even though the really important Final Four has already been decided, the Division 1 NCAA basketball championship starts this week, which means it's time to fill out your championship brackets. And so, as usual, I present the guaranteed-can't-miss-sure-thing method of picking the winner based on the rankings of Ph.D. programs in physics (excerpt displayed; click for the full bracket):

i-2c573c9669d2ab2595eb1651caef02ea-sm_physics_bracket_2011.png

OK, maybe there are a few bugs yet to be worked out with this method...

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Any system that pits a 13 seeded team against a 15 in the final match-up is clearly a keeper.

By Dave Smith (not verified) on 14 Mar 2011 #permalink

What ranking are you using? The long-awaited new "ranking" didn't assign actual numerical ranks to schools.

By CCPhysicist (not verified) on 14 Mar 2011 #permalink

Having grown up in Louisville, my first reaction to this was "wow, who does U of L beat in physics," only to see that it was another Morehead State, another KY public school which focuses more on undergraduate education.

By katydid13 (not verified) on 14 Mar 2011 #permalink

What would the Final Four be like if Harvard had won that playoff?

I've always been a fan of this annual moment of silliness. I tried to do a version for immunology or microbiology programs, but not enough schools have them. So I did NCAA predictions by total NIH funding. BYU also reaches the Sweet Sixteen, but they're in a weak region.

By Junius Ponds (not verified) on 16 Mar 2011 #permalink