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Pennsylvania Eighth Grader Holds Last Perfect Women’s March Madness Bracket

The 48-0 streak underscores luck over expertise in mass bracket contests.

Overview

  • Otto Schellhammer, 14, from suburban Pittsburgh, is 48-0 in the women’s bracket and the only perfect entry left entering the Sweet 16.
  • The NCAA says it tracked about 41.2 million total brackets across seven major contests, including roughly 36 million men’s and 5.2 million women’s entries.
  • Schellhammer says the run was “100% luck” and that he barely watches basketball, calling his second-round choices random.
  • Key upset calls, including No. 10 Virginia to the Sweet 16 and No. 6 Notre Dame to the second weekend, wiped out the remaining 235 perfect brackets during the Round of 32.
  • His picks now ride on TCU reaching the Final Four and Texas beating UConn for the title, with estimates placing 48 straight coin-flip calls at about 1 in 281 trillion and a 63-0 bracket at roughly 1 in 9.22 quintillion.