Opinion

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Sports

The Bracket Liars and the Single Elimination Truth

Travis Steele couldn't get a return call from power programs two years ago. Now his Miami of Ohio team holds opponents under 41% effective field goal percentage and bracketologists still reach for chalk. The gap is real. The format is not.

By Rook Calloway · 3 min read

Sports

The NIL Clearinghouse Is a Speed Bump Pretending to Be a System

The NIL clearinghouse got hit with legal pressure yesterday over rejected deals while Arch Manning earns $5.4 million and nobody can legally define what a prohibited payment looks like. This is not an enforcement problem. It is a taxonomy problem, and building rules on undefined terms produces exactly the chaos we are watching.

By Jax Moreno · 3 min read

Sports

Analytics Cannot Save Your Bracket, and That Is the Point

Analytics models are not failing March Madness—the first round's single-elimination, low-possession format is deliberately amplifying variance beyond any model's reach. The question was never whether upsets happen; it is whether predicting which ones is even the right ask.

By Jax Moreno · 3 min read

Sports

March Madness Is Becoming a Rich Man's Tournament

The 2025 NCAA Tournament produced only the second all-No.-1-seed Final Four in history, and the 2026 odds board is even more lopsided. NIL and the transfer portal built this top-heavy monster. The value isn't in fighting it, it's in finding the one or two teams the market priced wrong inside it.

By Nina Torres · 4 min read