ESPN Won't Give Prize to NCAA Bracket Winner - Because He's 12

Sixth-grader Sam Holtz finished in first place in ESPN.com’s NCAA bracket contest — and in the days since he’s been showered with glory and attention — but he’ll get none of the prizes.

Why? Because he’s just 12 years old — yes, we’ll say that again, he’s 12 — he’s not eligible for the grand prize, a trip to Maui and a $20,000 Best Buy gift card, awarded through a random drawing among the top 1 percent of contestants based on their point totals. Entrants had to be 18.

But after learning about his victory, Best Buy offered the Holtz family a shopping spree.

Instead, they opted for two Xbox game systems. Sam took one on Thursday at the Deer Park Best Buy, and he decided to give the other one to Make-A-Wish Illinois so that a child fighting a life-threatening disease could also have an Xbox.

He explained why to the Chicago Tribune:

“I decided to donate one of the Xbox One systems to Make-A-Wish because of my cousin Alec,” Sam said. “When he was real little, he was in Make-A-Wish, and back then [23 years ago], people granted his wish of going to Disney World. I thought I’d kind of repay them for what they did for my cousin [who survived his illness and is now an adult].”

If you thought Duke beating Wisconsin Monday night for the NCAA championship was exciting, Sam’s journey of late has been a whirlwind.

Sam played under the handle sammyholtz16 and finished with 1,830 points, tied for first with a player named Grant3326. From the Elite 8 through the championship game, he didn’t miss a pick. The lad correctly predicted 14 of the teams to make the Sweet 16, too.

Can you believe that? Well, his mom didn’t.

“He called me at work and said he was number six (on the leaderboard), and I initially dismissed it,” Liz Holtz told the Daily Herald. “When he showed me that night, I said, “Wow, this looks legit.”

How legit? The 12-year-old Lake Zurich Middle Schooler picked a better NCAA championship bracket than Dick Vitale. Better than 11.5 million others who entered ESPN’s contest, too.

“The great thing is that this kid beat all these experts out there,” ESPN spokesman Kevin Ota told reporters. “He beat all of our commentators, all these celebrities, all the college experts. That’s what makes this so awesome.

“The prize really is secondary.”

The Lake Zurich Middle School North student admitted he was kind of annoyed he wasn’t eligible for the grand prize.

But, whatever. He spent the better part of Tuesday reveling in all the attention with radio and TV interviews. The hosts of ESPN’s SportsCenter even offered to let him co-anchor the show sometime.

Some people pick the best team mascots or uniforms. Some study their brackets as if they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some just play to play and have something to talk about at work. Holtz says there was no secret to his method.

“There was some luck, and I studied ESPN.com,” Holtz said. “I just picked the teams that I felt had the best players.”

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