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Nobody Filling Out an NCAA Bracket Has Ever Done This

Gregg Nigl of Ohio is perfect through 48 games. And he had no idea

By Newser Editors

Houston's Armoni Brooks celebrates during a game against Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament Sunday, March 24, 2019, in Tulsa, Okla. Houston won.   (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Of the millions of people who have filled out March Madness brackets in major contests across the US, only one fan has gotten all 48 games right so far. Pretty impressive. Even more impressive?
Nobody has ever done that before in the history of bracket contests, according to NCAA.com. The site is including brackets filled out for ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, Fox, etc., along with the NCAA's own contest. The kicker? When the NCAA tracked down the perfect predictor, he had no idea his bracket was flawless, let alone that nobody had ever managed the feat this far into the tournament. "So wait, you’re saying I’m the first person to have ever done this?" asked Gregg Nigl, a 40-year-old neuropsychologist in Columbus, Ohio. "This is wild. I can't even believe it."

Nigl's perfect bracket is in the NCAA contest, and in a separate interview, he explains that it was the fourth bracket he'd filled out this year. He did so at the invitation of a friend. "I almost didn’t fill it out because we were just doing it for fun and I’m in a couple other ones at work and stuff." Nigl does a modest amount of research, but he doesn't have any great secrets to pass along and acknowledges that luck played a big role. "Go with the teams that you like, go with the ones you like the best, that's what I did," Nigl tells 6ABC. Nigl now has the chance at a perfect complete bracket, provided he nails the remaining 15 games. The NCAA calculates the odds this way: If each of the 63 games were a coin toss, the odds of a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. "Wow," says Nigl.