This year, tens of millions of brackets were entered into major online 草莓网站在线看 tournament bracket games. Midway through Sunday's second-round action, all but one of them had gotten at least one game wrong.
The exception: "," a bracket entered into our Capital One 草莓网站在线看 March Madness Bracket Challenge game that has gone an astounding 48-for-48 so far, correctly predicting every single game through two rounds of the 2019 草莓网站在线看 tournament. That鈥檚 worth repeating: .
We've been tracking brackets for years and, before this tournament, the longest streak we'd ever seen was 39 games in a row. That was an incredible feat. This shattered it.
Monday, we tracked down the owner of the record-breaking "center road" bracket. His name is Gregg Nigl, and he's a 40-year-old neuropsychologist who lives in Columbus, Ohio.
When we called Nigl, he had no idea that his bracket was perfect, let alone that it was the best verifiable bracket filled out in the history of March Madness.
For more detail on how we got here, head over to our Perfect Bracket Tracker, where we show in real time how we got from tens of millions of brackets to one. We'll be tracking "center road" the rest of the tournament there as well.
Here is an abridged version of the conversation with Nigl:
Gregg Nigl: This seems kind of unreal. How do I know that this is, you know, real?
sifoeeprocess.com: Are you near a computer now?
(The lead story on sifoeeprocess.com when we called was about Nigl's bracket)
GN: Yeah.
草莓网站在线看: If you go to sifoeeprocess.com, you鈥檒l see-
GN: I thought I remembered a news story about a kid鈥
草莓网站在线看: Yes, there was about a kid who picked a perfect Sweet 16, but that was on CBS鈥檚 bracket game, which allowed you to alter your picks after the tournament started, so there鈥檚 no way to verify that it was truly perfect.
GN: Okay. (Nigl has the call on speakerphone, and you can hear his wife in the background: "Is that your bracket?") Yeah, that鈥檚 my bracket. Okay, I鈥檓 on鈥 yeah, I see it. (His wife is laughing in background.)
草莓网站在线看: Yeah, congratulations!
POWER RANKINGS: The 16 teams in the Sweet 16, ranked by Andy Katz
GN: Yeah, this is my friend鈥檚 bracket [group] that he invited me to, and I almost didn鈥檛 fill it out because we were just doing it for fun and I鈥檓 in a couple other ones at work and stuff. Almost didn鈥檛 even fill it out.
草莓网站在线看: That鈥檚 amazing. Have you been filling out brackets for a while?
GN: Oh yeah, yeah. I do it every year. I'd probably say 10 to 15 years now.
Above: Gregg NIgl's bracket
草莓网站在线看: How many brackets did you fill out this year?
GN: Four.
草莓网站在线看: Do you have any strategy for it?
GN: I always watch bracketology, I listen to them, take into account what they say. And then, honestly, sometimes it鈥檚 which teams I like better. Some cities I like better, some teams I like better, some coaches I like better. I do look at the rankings too. It鈥檚 a combination of things. Don鈥檛 get me wrong, a bunch of this is luck. I know that. I鈥檓 not going to say I knew every matchup by any means.
草莓网站在线看: So, it鈥檚 hard to actually calculate the exact odds of a perfect bracket, but if every game were a coin flip, the odds would be about 1 in 9.2 quintillion.
GN: *Laughing* Wow.
草莓网站在线看: So, you鈥檝e got 15 games to go for that. We鈥檙e all rooting for you.
GN: So wait, you鈥檙e saying I鈥檓 the first person to have ever done this? *Laughing*
草莓网站在线看: Correct. As far as we can tell, you鈥檙e the first person in the history of the tournament to have ever done this.
(Nigl's wife can be heard in the background again: "He already said that.")
GN: I know, but it鈥檚 unbelievable.
草莓网站在线看: We track tens of millions of brackets every single year [we started in 2016] so you鈥檙e looking at hundreds of millions of brackets. None of them have ever done this well.
GN: Wow. Wow.
草莓网站在线看: Have you been watching the games?
GN: Yeah, we鈥檙e on vacation right now. We鈥檙e driving from Ohio to Vermont, which is a pretty long road trip. We stopped in New York so I could watch my Michigan Wolverines play. I鈥檝e been watching, I鈥檝e been listening to the games on Sirius as we drive.
草莓网站在线看: Were you following your bracket at all?
GN: It鈥檚 funny, the one that I鈥檓 perfect in was the one that I wasn鈥檛 really checking, because it was just amongst just a few friends. And honestly, I don鈥檛 even know if my other friends filled one out. I might be the only one in the group who filled one out, I don鈥檛 know.
But yeah, I did four. And I almost didn鈥檛 fill that one out, because I was actually sick on Thursday, and I filled it out Thursday morning, right before the deadline, and I almost didn鈥檛 do it. I was lying in bed, I was sick, and I called into work. I almost went back to bed and didn鈥檛 fill it out, but I did it anyway because I felt bad because it was my friend鈥檚 [group].
Honestly, when I got this message, I thought it was a joke, or a prank or something, you know?
草莓网站在线看: I can definitely understand that. How well do you usually do in your bracket groups?
GN: I do decently. I've won it a few times at work.
This is wild. I can't even believe it.
草莓网站在线看: Yeah, it is pretty crazy. I don't know if you were watching last night, but in the last game of the night, UC Irvine vs. Oregon, UC Irvine went on a 14-0 run to take the lead in the second half, and you had picked Oregon.
GN: I wasn't watching. I went to bed, I was tired. I had no idea that this was even happening.
***
We followed up with Nigl later in the day to confirm that he truly was the owner of "center road." The conversation quickly circled back to the magnitude of his achievement.
GN: After I got off the phone with you, I started texting some people and reading some stuff. And yeah, wow, I get it now.
It鈥檚 kind of a big deal.
***
You can follow Nigl's bracket on its quest for perfection here.
