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Autistic teen has perfect NCAA tourney bracket … your picks still suck

Mar 23, 2010, 4:00 PM EDT

121 Comments

So how are your brackets doing? (Put down the gun. Seriously, it’s only a game). You may not be in the mood to hear this right now, but Alex Herrman, a 17-year-old from the Chicago area, has picked every game correctly so far on his CBS Bracket Challenge entry. Forty-eight winners, including Northern Iowa over Kansas, Ohio over Georgetown and Cornell over Wisconsin. And, um, Purdue over Siena, which somehow tripped me up.
Herrman, who has autism, says that he studied all season for the tournament … but unfortunately entered one of the only online pools that doesn’t have a prize. Yahoo offers $1 million for a perfect bracket; SportsBook.com offers $13 million. Shenanigans?
Video, and Alex’s bracket, following the jump.


From NBC Chicago:

CBS did not return several phone calls to confirm Alex’s entry — and the software does allow changes after the tournament begins. But the Hermann’s insisted that they filled out their brackets as a family before the tournament started, and haven’t touched the picks since.

Here’s his bracket.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcchicago.com/video.

“I’m good at math,” Alex, a Glenbrook South High School student, said. “I’m kind of good at math and at stats I see on TV during the game.”

Alex entered the bracket on CBSsports.com’s bracket challenge. His 24-year-old brother Andrew, who helped him enter his picks into CBS’ bracket manager, also entered the contest — and ranks behind 500,000 other people.

“My bracket is totally shot,” hist 24-year-old brother Andrew said. “So is everyone else I know.”

ESPN estimates around 4.78 million played in their bracket challenge, but no one picked all the games correctly. The leader at ESPN’s bracket has already missed four games.

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Autistic Teen Picks First Two NCAA Rounds Perfectly [NBC Chicago]

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121 Comments (Feed for Comments)
  1. OregonDuckSteve - Mar 24, 2010 at 2:28 PM

    Not sure if it’s valid or not but I am now rooting for Purdue to win the title!

  2. Kris - Mar 24, 2010 at 2:29 PM

    Hate to tell you this, but those brackets are locked in once the tourney begins so kiddo here picked these BEFORE the games started and you can’t change ‘em once their in. Get over it. The kid is just smart and good with stats. That – or he’s lucky as all get-out.

  3. KBG - Mar 24, 2010 at 2:36 PM

    I picked Iowa over Kansas – only cause I hate Kansas and it turned out to be lucky I did lol
    Anyway – why do you all care whether the kid is right or wrong? You can’t change played games. It doesn’t allow you access. i tried it 40 different ways – and it gives you the same message “Bracket closed to changes”. So HA!
    The kids just smart. Or damned lucky.

  4. Casey - Mar 24, 2010 at 2:46 PM

    Some people are so ignorant! Saying that autism people can’t lie well if that’s true than great but that doesn’t stop his brother who entered the bracket from changing the entries. Has anyone else besides myself think they made this a feel good story for a young man with autism and that he isn’t going to win anything but will at least get national attention. Remember the guy who said he lost his son on the hot air ballon what some people do for attention!

  5. Joe Bone - Mar 24, 2010 at 3:56 PM

    First, I don’t think he got it right, not a chance, and he certainly didn’t do it because of some gift he may have for math; the odds are just too long especially given the serious underdogs that came through for him. Secondly, what I don’t understand is this: why didn’t his brother enter the brackets into the real CBS contest, or any of the other contests out there? He just entered it into a bracket manager thing, not a real contest. My guess is if he has an entry into any of those contests, the bracket won’t look the same.
    Finally, what was this family thinking by running to the media? Why subject this kid or any kid to the scrutiny that was sure to follow? What were they looking to get out of it, an attaboy for their son? I’m not seeing it.
    So we’re left with a family rushing to the media with an unprovable story of someone overcoming unbelievably long odds.
    Balloon boy, meet your new friends.

  6. Dan - Mar 24, 2010 at 4:00 PM

    It never said that Alex denied that he changed it, it said that his family denies that he changed it (specifically his mom, in the source article).
    “When asked whether the bracket was altered after the tourney began, Alex’s mother said, simply, ‘no.’”
    That’s different.

  7. DeeWeb - Mar 24, 2010 at 4:41 PM

    Jeez dumbass I’m entered in that league and as of last thurs a.m. you couldn’t change your brackets. Give the boy his credit.

  8. bob - Mar 24, 2010 at 4:43 PM

    sounds like some one is not doing to good in there own bracket.

  9. Andrew - Mar 24, 2010 at 5:25 PM

    How would the mom know what the 2 kids did. You ever see Rainman? One brother taking advantage of the other brother. Ray, did you make those pick? Yeah, Ray made picks, mades pick, yeah Ray made picks. You can tell he cheated, look at the picks he made for the games that have not yet been played. Looks like a monkey finished the bracket.

  10. J.A. Adande - Mar 24, 2010 at 5:31 PM

    CBS you better pay this kid if he gets his whole bracket right or i will blog you so badly you will wish you payed him

  11. U R Wrong - Mar 24, 2010 at 7:59 PM

    You are quick to call people names. Too bad you don’t have your facts correct.
    There are two ways to play on CBS. There is CBS Bracket Challenge, which is locked once the games begin. There is also a Bracket Manager, in which you can manage your own private group. In the Bracket Manager, the group administrator can edit the picks even after the games have been played.
    The article reads as though Alex entered his bracket in the Bracket Challenge, which is not true. As many others have pointed out, anyone can look at the leaderboard and see that nobody in the Challenge has a perfect bracket. Therefore he can not possibly have a perfect bracket in the CBS Bracket Challenge.
    If Alex did correctly pick all games so far, it can only be entered in the Bracket Manager, which can be altered. Nobody posting on this site knows for sure if he did or did not enter all picks correctly.

  12. kerr - Mar 24, 2010 at 8:23 PM

    THANK YOU U R WRONG!!!!I don’t understand the going back and forth with everybody. GO TO CBSSPORTS.COM AND YOU CAN SEE THIS STORY IS NOT TRUE. NOBODY AND I MEAN NOBODY HAS A PERFECT BRACKET. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME GO TO CBSSPORTS.COM AND TAKE A LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

  13. JTC - Mar 25, 2010 at 8:26 AM

    The bit map image submitted as proof is an image that has not been submitted to cbssports.com. The image is missing a final score, includes the save and reset buttons and the results of the completed games displayed in green. The web page does not allow submission of an entry without a final score. Once the tournament starts, the save and reset buttons are not displayed. Before the tournament starts, all selections are displayed in black. So my analysis of the bit map image is that it is counterfeit. This could have been created in a photoshop type program or by hijacking the source code from the cbssports.com web page prior to the start of the tournament and altering the java script and html code. As proof of these picks, log in and submit the source code to a news agency or give up your user name and password. Other wise its just a clever hoax.

  14. Windrunner - Mar 25, 2010 at 4:41 PM

    There is no way that using math or any other science can enable one to accurately pick perfect brackets all the way thru. He could be a true seer, and that would be scary if it comes out the way he predicts. I was always under the notion that the team with the mostest, and bestest chimps win.

  15. joe blow - Mar 25, 2010 at 4:55 PM

    you make yourself look far small than dismount or whatever his name is. he’s right, though, you can change your picks after games have started, so I have a perfect bracket, too.

  16. CommonSense66 - Mar 25, 2010 at 5:02 PM

    So we really shouldn’t care if a “feel-good story” is a lie? That seems kind of dangerous to me, or at minimum, shows an extraordinary lack of critical thinking.
    I haven’t seen an interview with the kid, or even know that there is one, but being diagnosed as autistic covers a ton of ground. I know 2 kids in my neighborhood who have that diagnosis, and both seem to be fairly normal, fully functional kids who get good grades in all subjects. They have a couple of social issues, but it’s not like they are Rain Man.

  17. Adam From Staten - Mar 25, 2010 at 6:14 PM

    Do you people realize how completely and utterly idiotic you sound when you start ranting that Dischmount is wrong? Try reading the article and/or doing research on the subject, if such an event is even possible with your pea-size brains. This particular site allows for brackets to be changed in between rounds. (We have no idea yet if this particular kid took advantage of this). For example, once Round 1 starts, those picks are set in stone, but at the completion of Round 1, you can alter your picks that were already made for Round 2. You can do this with the information you obtained in Round 1. Maybe you only had Cornell winning Round 1, but, well now, Cornell shot the lights out while Wisconsin didn’t impress, so maybe now I change my pick.
    Dischmount was correct in saying what he did. If that offends you with regards to this feel-good story, tough.

  18. Adam From Staten - Mar 25, 2010 at 6:21 PM

    Also, in and of itself, having a perfect bracket through 48 games is not an impressive feat by any means. There are probably 20 million or more brackets filled out in this country every year. Someone, somewhere, has to pick the correct mix of upsets and “coinflip” type games to come out with a bracket that is perfect or near-perfect. It happens every year due to the sheer number of people who fill out brackets (many people fill out multiple brackets as well).
    Please don’t forget that you are basically handed 8 wins in the first round via the 1 vs. 16 games (16 has never won a game) and the 2 vs 15 matchups (15 only has four wins). There are fewer permutations than you think.

  19. Hugh G. Rection - Mar 25, 2010 at 8:00 PM

    Your parents probably didn’t love you enough, so u dont have any feelings anymore. Maybe you turn to drugs and alcohol as a result of this, and have become addicted. Maybe you ran out of money because you did too many drugs and alcohol. Maybe you didnt. But maybe you did. Also, I would like to make it known that you are putting down somebody who has autism, making you, my friend, actually looking more retarded than the retarded kid who you are putting down. Also, you probably didn’t even graduate from high school, or you would have the intelligence to understand that you cannot change your pics on these sites. You see, the way these sites work is that you make pics, and then you save them onto a website, such as cbssports.com. After you save them, you cannot change them. Well now you know how it works.

  20. Adam From Staten - Mar 25, 2010 at 8:06 PM

    Hugh G Rection (cute but immature), I hope you’re attempting the most massive level of all time, because otherwise you’re a complete fool. Everything you said is either dum or completely inaccurate. Try reading the article and the responses.

  21. morongk - Mar 25, 2010 at 8:25 PM

    first off all, what you just said was way worse than anything that guy said. Nothing in his post made any reference to the kid having autism. You brought ‘retarded’ into the discussion not him, by fact that makes you the terrible person.
    Also you can change the bracket if you are in certain pools, it says that in the article, please read before posting a lengthy post full of incorrect info and hate.

  22. jose sanchez - Mar 25, 2010 at 9:10 PM

    oooooopss looks like wonder boy was wrong about syracuse….

  23. Dischmount - Mar 25, 2010 at 9:16 PM

    Isn’t it interesting–the very first game after Alex’s bracket is made public BEFORE the games are played, he gets the game wrong. I think we can stop talking about this now. Good riddance.

  24. boobbbsss - Mar 25, 2010 at 9:28 PM

    this kid is a huge idiot

  25. Jennifer - Mar 25, 2010 at 9:29 PM

    I’m a little confused about the comments that say kids with autism can’t lie. . . I’m a special education teacher and have experience working with children with autism. I have never heard that claim. And yes, I have heard my students with autism lie. Not to mention, there is a comment from someone with autism who even admits he does lie at times.
    That being said, who cares in the end if the kid has changed his picks or not? Stop focusing on something so minor and find something more important to worry about.
    Kudos to Alex! I had a student last year with autism who could tell you every player in the NBA, where they went to college and high school and what their high scores were. I currently have a student who knows more about history than most textbooks. These people are amazingly bright and deserved to be recognized!

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