May the Best Team Win

Designing a sports schedule so the strongest team prevails

The winner of the Superbowl or World Series is that season’s best-performing team. Right?

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Wrong, according to scientists. And the problem isn’t just the occasional “wild card” team that unexpectedly wins, such as the Florida Marlins bagging the World Series in 2003. A recent study shows that the strongest team in the league ends up with the best record only about 30 percent of the time.