Professor of mathematics at Central College Russ Goodman presents “Sports Analytics: Ratings, Rankings and Creating the Perfect March Madness Bracket.” The presentation is at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Boat/Moore/Weller rooms of Maytag Student Center on Central’s campus. Goodman will offer some of the basics of sports analytics and how anyone can use mathematics, statistics and computing power to rate and rank players or teams. He will share easy-to-use resources that could be used when filling out an NCAA March Madness bracket.

“The use of analytics certainly helps someone create an NCAA March Madness bracket that is objective and personalized, giving them a legitimate way to prove to their friends that they are better at identifying key indicators of success in the tournament,” Goodman says. “Additionally, the analytics skills I’ll talk about are applicable to analyzing data in many fields like education, politics and economics.”

All ages are welcome, regardless of math background. It is free and open to the public. Since 2016, Goodman has coordinated the Midwest Sports Analytics Meeting on campus at Central, bringing in sports analytics experts from across the country. He has taught at Central since 2002.