March 18, 2018 4:25 pm

Have You Caught March Madness? Explore Bracketology with Gary, Chuck, and Chris Dobbertean.

The madness is in the air…can you feel it? Brackets were filled, hearts are being broken, and you’ll probably lose five dollars in your bracket pool, if you haven’t already!

Wednesday’s Playing with Science episode was all about the brackets! The NCAA Men’s College Basketball tournament kicked off last week in Dayton, and continues throughout the country until a national champion is decided in San Antonio. We’ve already seen major upsets happen – including the first time in history a 16-seeded team upset a 1-seeded team – and we’re bound to see more madness in the next coming weeks.

In March Madness 2018 – Bracketology, we’ve combined the new with the old as we take a look back at last year’s March Madness episode featuring our intrepid hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice as they chat with bracketologist Chris Dobbertean. You’ll hear how the teams are selected to compete in the tournament, the variables that Chris looks for when picking teams to win, and why the 5 vs 12 seed matchup is always a place for upsets to happen.

For the new portion of the show Chuck and Chris came back to break down the 2018 NCAA tournament as we geared up for the games to begin (Gary was grounded in London during the recent massive Eastern snowstorm).

You’ll discover the changes the NCAA has made regarding the weight assigned to each win, and learn about the Ratings Percentage Index, which is another tool the NCAA uses to gage the success of a team during the season.

Chris also shares how he originally got into loving March Madness and he tells us if there truly is a strategy for picking a perfect bracket. Last, but not least, Chuck offers up a tantalizing prize for someone who picks a perfect bracket…as long as you tell the truth!

You can listen to March Madness 2018 right now on our website, as well as on our Playing with Science channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free, too.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen