Math-Stats Colloquium: “Strategies for Surviving Single Elimination Tournament Knockout Pools”

Tuesday, March 5, at 4:15 p.m.
Cheray Science Hall, Room 101

Join Professor John Trono, Chair of Computer Science Department, in this presentation about single elimination tournament knockout pools.

In a typical knockout (KO) pool, each entrant must select a winning team every week of the regular season. If they fail to do so, they no longer have a chance of winning that pool since that loss (or tie), by their chosen team, has removed them from the list of entrants who are still alive in that pool. Also, each entrant is allowed to select a team just once during that season. If this style of pool is extended to a single elimination tournament (SET), like Wimbledon, the World Cup, NCAA’s March Madness, etc., then different players/teams must be taken in each round.

Strategies for outlasting every other entrant in such a KO pool will be considered in this talk, and results from recent March Madness tournaments will also be examined.

Light refreshments will be served.