This might not be a huge consolation to Spartan fans, but Michigan State continues to dominate in simulated brackets, being named the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Champion by FiveThirtyEight and their simulation. According to their process, MSU knocked off Kansas by 1-point in a thrilling NCAA Championship game.
While this is certainly a fun little quarantine tidbit for fans to laugh about, it also carries with it quite a bit of heartbreak for fans who watched Michigan State start the season as the presumptive favorite, nearly fall out of relevance, then storm back at the end of the season, winning partial ownership of the Big Ten Championship while looking to be in top form heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Here is the process they took, according to FiveThirtyEight:
“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 rounds, the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight and the Final Four; here’s how the title game might have gone down.”
