BLACKSBURG, Va. – As part of a grade for one of their classes, some Virginia Tech students are participating in March Madness this year.
Students in the Introduction to Sports Media course finalized their bracket predictions for the 2022 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
“It was very telling. The only one that was surprising was Iowa. I picked Iowa and they’re a No. 5 seed, you expect the No. 1′s in the final four, but my partner had a point there’s always a Cinderella story,” Kyle Marchak, a freshman said.
Bill Roth, a Virginia Sports Hall of Fame broadcaster and a Virginia Tech professor, created the bracketology project several years ago.
Students receive a packet of in-depth statistics and analyses of the teams.
“I am slightly surprised by the predictions, I did have Gonzaga and Tennessee in my final four, I didn’t really pick Purdue, I thought it would be more like a Baylor, Kentucky,” Nick Broyden, another freshman said.
Students are graded on the success of their individual bracket selections, and the entire class’ brackets are combined to produce a joint prediction.
“I hope they’re right, secondly they worked really hard at it and the message here isn’t necessarily they picked the right final four, is that they understand data analytics,” Roth said.