How Not To Go ‘Mad’ During March Madness
It’s not a stretch for The Teller to say that a fair number of Banker & Tradesman’s readers have filled out a March Madness bracket.
But whether you’re participating in an office pool or with a group of longtime friends, this yearly ritual has never required much forethought. Let’s face it, your chances of winning are pretty much as good as the next person’s – which means you’re never getting that $10 back.
In an effort to make sure that you have a better chance of recouping your March Madness investment (plus a little more), Jones Lang LaSalle has come up with its own unique way to boost your odds of winning the NCAA Tournament pool. Apparently, it all has to do with being knowledgeable about the latest commercial real estate statistics.
B&T subscribers, you have read correctly. You don’t actually need to know anything about college hoops to best your friends at this game. As long as you are a commercial real estate junkie (and we know a lot of you are), you’ll fare just fine.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, this year’s Final Four teams “can be accurately predicted by analyzing the prevailing office vacancy rates in each of the 68 college towns represented.” Never mind knowing that BYU is going to suffer because the school suspended its star rebounder for violating the institution’s honor code. Having information about vacancy rates will trump knowledge about traditional indicators such as win-loss percentages, RPI ratings and strength-of-schedule-rankings.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s own Rich Branning – who played in the 1978 Final Four with the University of Notre Dame – claims the company’s formula makes sense. When it comes to picking a winning team, choose the one whose city has the lowest office vacancy rates. Apparently this method was successful in predicting the most recent Super Bowl winners – Green Bay has a lower vacancy rate than Pittsburgh, so they naturally came out on top.
Who could have ever predicted that commercial real estate knowledge could lead to March Madness bracket bragging rights? The Teller just wishes this gem had been shared before filling out our own company bracket. There’s always next year.
