8th grader has the only remaining perfect NCAA women's basketball bracket

[mahatmakanejeeves]

[link:https://abcnews.com/GMA/Living/8th-grader-remaining-perfect-ncaa-womens-basketball-bracket/story?id=131467070
|8th grader has the only remaining perfect NCAA women's basketball bracket]

14-year-old Otto Schellhammer said the bracket picks were "all luck."

By Gregory Romero, Nic Uff, Henderson Hewes, and Mason Leib via GMA
March 27, 2026, 2:55 PM

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8th grader is only person with perfect March Madness bracket so far14-year-old Otto Schellhammer from Pittsburgh, who says it “was all luck,” has managed to pick all of the correct winners so far in the women’s NCAA tournament.
ABC News

Every year, millions of Americans fill out March Madness brackets for the annual men's and women's college basketball tournaments, hoping to fulfill their unrealized dreams of selecting a perfect bracket. This year, one Pennsylvania 8th grader is over halfway to achieving that goal.

Fourteen-year-old Otto Schellhammer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has a perfect women's bracket through two full rounds of play, with 16 teams remaining of the more than 60 that started the tournament.


Otto Schellhamer speaks with Good Morning America.
ABC News

"The first round was mainly just pick the higher seed, and then the second round, it was all random," Otto told "Good Morning America" in an interview that aired Friday morning.

He added, "I just want everybody to know, this was all luck."

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Eighth-grader's perfect women's NCAA bracket lasts until Sweet 16 before finally missing a game

Women’s Top 25 • 50 years: Women’s poll • All-time greatest players

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Eighth-grader’s perfect women’s NCAA bracket lasts until Sweet 16 before finally missing a game

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Otto Schellhamer, an eighth-grader who has the only perfect bracket after the opening weekend of the men’s and women’s NCAA college basketball tournaments, poses in his backyard in Plum Borough, Pa., Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated 8:57 PM EDT, March 27, 2026

It took Pittsburgh eighth-grader Otto Schellhammer until the Sweet 16 to finally miss one of his women’s picks for March Madness.

No. 6 seed Notre Dame beat second-seeded Vanderbilt on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, to open the regional rounds of the women’s NCAA Tournament. That ended the 14-year-old’s run as the last perfect bracket after the opening weekend of the men’s and women’s tournaments from more than 40 million entries across all the major contests.

Schellhammer previously told The Associated Press it was “100% luck” and that he didn’t know anything about basketball despite that perfect start through 48 games. His mother, Amy, called it “absolutely hilarious” and said her son had been getting more excited about watching the games because of the perfect start.

He has Texas winning the title in his bracket.

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