Mr. Mitzel's Extra Credit Opportunity- Week 1

In the three and a half years I've been writing on Confessions of a Sportscaster, I've done a lot of different projects. I've picked three seasons' worth of NFL games against the spread. I've blasted the corruption of big time college football in favor of a more equitable playoff. I've chronicled the rise of The System that is slowly destroying my vocal chords (but I love every minute of it). I've even proved that the 1996 Chicago Bulls are the greatest NBA team of all time. But today... I'm giving a homework assignment. Kind of.

If you are one of Mrs. Mitzel's students in either Common Core 7, Math A, or Foundations, welcome to your extra credit opportunity. One of the great things about math is that it's everywhere; you just have to know where to look. And with the greatest four day stretch in sports coming up this weekend, we're going to find some.

There are plenty of ways math applies to March Madness. Mrs. Mitzel and I came up with a few questions for you about the NCAA Tournament. Answer the following questions below in an email back to Mrs. Mitzel, and she will give you some extra credit points.

1. You guys have learned about percents and the percent proportion, so we'll apply it to last year's NCAA Tournament bracket. Of all the "Second Round/Round of 64" games last year, what percentage of those games were "upsets"? (For those of you who aren't familiar with the NCAA Tournament or sports in general: the bracket is split up into four groups of 16 teams who receive a "seed", a number from 1 to 16. The 1 seed is the best team, the 2 seed is second best, and so on. An "upset" is where the team with a higher number seed wins over the team with the lower number seed. For example, the 12 seed beating the 5 seed would be an upset.)
2. We're going to try a probability question. Starting on Thursday, the field of 64 will start playing, and by Sunday, only 16 teams (known as the "Sweet 16") will still be in the Tournament. If you pick one team out of the 64, what is the probability that they will make the Sweet 16? Express this answer as a percent (rounded to the nearest whole number), a decimal (rounded to the nearest hundredth), and a fraction.

Mrs. Mitzel will give you 1 extra credit point for each correct answer. In addition to this, pick one team out of the field of 64 that you think will advance to the Sweet 16. If that team is still alive on Monday morning, she will give you an additional extra credit point. All of this is due before the start of school Thursday morning.

Then, for kicks and giggles, if you want to fill out a bracket and see how well you can do, you can join my free pool over at Yahoo! Make sure that this is okay with your parents first before you join. Good luck!