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Mercer University's stunning upset of Duke

 on Friday in the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship ruined most fans' brackets — the guesses they make before the 64 teams face each other about which team's going to win every game.
By Friday evening, though, there were still three folks from about the 8.7 million or so who had entered Quicken Loans' "

" who had a chance to win the $1 billion prize offered by investment whiz Warren Buffett if they correctly picked the winner of every game.
Then Memphis beat George Washington, 71-66, and boom went those last three brackets in the billion-dollar challenge that hadn't already been busted. "It took just 25 games for everyone to be eliminated," 

.
The chances of winning Buffett's billion were astronomical.

 As Yahoo Sports, which is hosting the challenge, says


Now, we should point out that there's still money to be won in the Quicken Loans/Buffett challenge. 

 are available to the entrants who come closest to being right about all the games.


By the way, there are many other websites that invited fans to fill out brackets. Millions also have brackets elsewhere on Yahoo, for instance. As of Saturday morning, only one person's Yahoo brackets were still perfect. That prognosticator is Brad Binder, 23, of Buffalo Grove, Ill.


"I did all my picks under five minutes," 

.
Alas, he's not entered in the billion dollar challenge. But he seems to have a sense of humor about that. 

 that he's doing it "for the love of the bracket guys, did it for the love of the bracket."
He 

does have a question for Buffett, however


If you want to see which teams Binder thinks will win the rest of the way, 

. He's expecting one significant upset this weekend: A victory for Stephen F. Austin University over UCLA on Sunday.
Binder thinks Mercer will win one more game — beating Tennessee on Sunday — before being eliminated. He's picking Michigan State to win the title.  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Sports

Mark Memmott

Author

By Friday evening, though, there were still three folks from about the 8.7 million or so who had entered Quicken Loans' "Billion $ Bracket Challenge" who had a chance to win the $1 billion prize offered by investment whiz Warren Buffett if they correctly picked the winner of every game.

Buffett's billion dollars are safe as upsets bust brackets

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