Is “Autistic kid bracket” the new balloon boy hoax?
A. Isaac 
Yesterday, there was a wonderful story of a 17 year old Autistic boy whose bracket was perfect through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. The boy said he studied math and stats all year and that helped him with his picks. The odds of picking every game perfectly thus far in this tournament according to one sportsbook was 1 in 13 million. The story seemed almost too good to be true.
And then by chance this little nugget of information came out later in the day.
CBSSports.com can not confirm Alex’s entry — the company doesn’t track entries to their Bracket Manager program. Unlike CBSSports’ Bracket Challenge, which ranks players nationally and locks entries once the tournament begins, Bracket Challenge does allow changes after play starts.
The Hermanns insist, however, that they filled out their brackets as a family before the tournament started, and haven’t touched the picks since. When asked whether the bracket was altered after the tourney began, Alex’s mother said, simply, “no.”
What seemed like a “Rainman” in the making now smells of a dirty soiled diaper with Indian food. Has anybody been involved in a legitimate bracket where you were allowed to make changes after play started? Conveniently the bracket wasn’t for money, although, Alex Hermann is underage and isn’t allowed to gamble. Which ultimately confuses the hell out of me, because doesn’t every high school kid throw in 5 bucks for a bracket? It’s one of the few big scores you can have all year as a kid. The one where you dream of getting an xbox, a playstation, or a bunch of video games if you win.
I’m not ready to call this the 2010 version of Balloon Boy just yet but I’m real close to finding “Falcon in the attic”.
Autistic Teen Picks First Two NCAA Rounds Perfectly {NBC Chicago}
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