(11.11.06) Recommends:

Another season of NCAA basketball.

People in California are probably too busy finishing up reading all the fine print that accompanied the roughly 5000 items on Tuesday's ballots to notice that today is opening day for many college basketball teams. But everybody else, listen up: Julian Wright's campaign to become First Team All-America begins tonight against Northern Arizona. KU is a 25.5 point favorite. What are the odds the fix is in? For an interesting, forensic-economic look at point shaving in college basketball, I suggest reading this paper by Justin Wolfers, a brilliant, on-the-rise Penn economist. He published this paper last March, to coincide with the NCAA Tournament. You can bet that the NCAA was not very pleased (though you wouldn't get very good odds). Keep an eye out for other exciting work by Wolfers. He's one of those rare economists who has the potential for vast mainstream readership.