Perfect NCAA Bracket Holder Didn't Enter Warren Buffett's $1 Billion Challenge

By Liz Fields March 22, 2014

Brad Binder still has a perfect NCAA Tournament bracket. Brad Binder @Brad_Binder_

Brad Binder is kicking himself.

After 33 games, he is the last man standing with a perfect NCAA tournament bracket, on Yahoo! Sports at least. The trouble is, the 23-year-old 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 last two days, 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 enviable 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 for is now a sore point for the part-time physical therapy assistant.

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

"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."

In the meantime, Binder has been feeling the adulation from Twitter fans who've hailed him the next "oracle" of college basketball.