Pennsylvania eighth-grader holds sole perfect bracket in NCAA women's tournament after opening weekend
Authored by freebet.icu, 27 Mar 2026
Otto Schellhammer, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Plum Borough, Pennsylvania, has the only remaining perfect bracket in the women's NCAA Division I basketball tournament following the first two rounds.[1][2]
The NCAA women's tournament consists of 68 teams, including four play-in games, followed by the round of 64 (32 games) and round of 32 (16 games) during the opening weekend for a total of 48 games.[3]
Schellhammer correctly predicted all 48 outcomes in ESPN's Tournament Challenge contest, despite telling the Associated Press he knows "basically nothing about any type of basketball" and that his success was "100% luck."[1] He said he plays basketball with friends but does not watch it.[1]
Mike Benzie, senior director of content for NCAA Digital, said Schellhammer is the lone perfect entry among seven of the largest tracked contests, which included 36 million men's brackets and 5.2 million women's brackets.[1][2]
On the men's side, all perfect brackets were eliminated after 44 games when Tennessee defeated Virginia.[1] For the women's tournament, 235 perfect brackets remained entering Monday, March 24, 2026, falling to seven after Virginia's double-overtime victory over Iowa and to one after Notre Dame defeated Ohio State.[1]
Schellhammer, who first checked his bracket after watching those games on March 24, has the Texas Longhorns to win the national championship.[1]
His mother, Amy Schellhammer, described the achievement as "absolutely hilarious" and noted it has sparked his interest in women's basketball.[1]
The tournament advances to the Sweet 16 on March 27-28, 2026, and Elite Eight on March 30-31, 2026.[3]
Sources
- Fox News Digital, "Perfection is hard to come by – as anyone who has ever filled out a bracket for the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournament...", March 26, 2026, https://www.foxnews.com/sports/eighth-grader-perfect-ncaa-bracket
- Associated Press, AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar (Otto Schellhammer photo), March 25, 2026, https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-bracket-perfect-otto-schellhammer
- NCAA.com, "2026 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament", accessed March 26, 2026, https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-women/article/2026-03-17/2026-ncaa-womens-basketball-bracket-march-madness