SPOKANE, Wash. — An Ohio man's NCAA Tournament bracket has stayed perfect into the Sweet 16 for the first time in March Madness history – and he picked Gonzaga to win the national championship.
The person going by the screen name of "Center Road," now identified as Gregg Nigl of Columbus Ohio, has correctly predicted 48 of the 63 games in the NCAA Tournament so far, according to the NCAA.
He shattered the previous NCAA "Bracket Challenge Game" record of 39 games, which happened in 2017. The NCAA bracket tracker says the bracket is the only perfect one remaining across all major online bracket, including Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, Fox and Sports Illustrated.
In addition to his historic bracket, two of Nigl's other three brackets are in first place in their groups, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
If every game were a coin toss, the odds of predicting 48 games in a row are 1 in 281,474,975,710,656, according to the NCAA. Hopefully this means Nigl's lucky streak will pay off for the Zags this year.
The odds of filling out a perfect bracket is 1 in 9.2 quintillion, assuming you flip a coin for every game. It is twice as easy to win back-to-back lotteries, buying only one ticket each time, than to complete a perfect bracket.
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Nigl has picked all favorites for the next eight games of the NCAA Tournament, which would put four 1 seed and four 2 seeds in the Elite Eight. This has not happened in the 34-year history of the tournament, according to the NCAA.
In his perfect bracket, Nigl has No. 1 Gonzaga beating No. 2 Kentucky for the national title. Duke and Virginia round out the Final Four.
The Gonzaga men are heading to their fifth straight Sweet 16 after beating No. 9 Baylor 83-71 on Saturday. Forward Brandon Clarke had 36 points, five blocks and five dunks during that game.
The Zags face fourth-seeded Florida State on Thursday in Anaheim, California. It is a rematch of their Sweet 16 game from last year, which the Semioles won 75-60.
Fans can watch the game at 4:09 p.m. on Thursday on KREM 2.
Nigl told the Dispatch he almost did not fill out his bracket last week, saying he was home sick just hours before the deadline. But he felt bad about not entering a bracket in his friend's tournament group.
While Nigl likes how he picked the remaining games, he isn't counting on his bracket to stay perfect.
"Seeing the odds of a perfect bracket up until this point, I'm not very confident that it will stay that way," Nigl said. "But anything can happen."
