Perfect NCAA Bracket Is Perfect No More

By Liz Fields March 23, 2014

Brad Binder was the last person with a perfect NCAA Tournament bracket on Yahoo! Sports. Brad Binder @Brad_Binder_

The Last man standing is standing no more. Brad Binder's NCAA bracket was busted tonight when Dayton beat Syracuse, 55-53, and Wisconsin knocked off Oregon, 85-77.

In a men's college basketball tournament full of upsets, Binder had gone further than anyone else predicting the winners in March Madness. After 33 games, he had the last man standing with a perfect NCAA tournament bracket, on Yahoo! Sports at least.

As his teams kept winning, the 23-year-old had started to regret that he'd neglected to enter any pools. Not Warren Buffet's billion dollar challenge, not Fox Sports' $1 million prize, not even a dodgy office sweepstake. That's like filling out a winning lottery ticket but forgetting to pay for it at the counter.

A lifelong basketball player and Chicago Bulls and Fighting Illini fan, Binder said that this year he just "entered for fun to see what happened." But as his picks kept winning over the first days of the to0urnament, the Illinois native began to regret not taking it more seriously.

"I wish I could give you a better reason why I didn't enter other than I was rushed and heading to work," Binder told ABC News. "Obviously, I didn't think I'd be where I am now."

It took Binder all of five minutes to fill out his bracket, which he aptly called " Brad's Breathtaking Bracket."

When Dayton's upset of Ohio State knocked out 84 percent of participants in Buffett's bracket challenge, Binder had it right. He also picked Mercer's win against Duke on Friday afternoon.

By that evening, after Memphis beat George Washington, no one was left in the Buffett-backed Quicken Loans challenge. All of those entrants would have killed for Binder's perfect bracket, which became a sore point for the part-time physical therapy assistant.

Binder even tried to make up for his misstep by getting in touch with Quicken Loans and Warren Buffett to see if he could cut some sort of deal, saying he could really use the money for grad school.

"I'm hot on Warren Buffett's trail," Binder said. "I've been tweeting him to get in contact to see if he's feeling up to it."

Binder also drew adulation from Twitter fans who've hailed him the next "oracle" of college basketball.

But the Ducks, who he had picked to go all the way to the final, and the Orange couldn't keep his run alive.