Warren Buffett’s $1M bracket pool has its first winner
A college manager with rap skills lands 10 NIL deals, March Madness lacks upsets, and Warren Buffett finally gives away his $1M bracket prize. Plus: buzzer-beaters, bizarre F1 disqualifications, and a heartfelt farewell to George Foreman.
NIL deals aren’t just for athletes anymore. Just ask Amir Khan of McNeese State, who last week became the first student manager to score an NIL contract.
And not just one, either. He’s reportedly up to at least 10, including pitchman gigs for Buffalo Wild Wings, TickPick, and Insomnia Cookies.
Why the hype? In addition to standard manager duties of rebounding during warmups and wiping sweat off the floor, Khan (nicknamed “Aura”) is a rap star. Last month, he went viral after a video showed him rapping “In and Out” by Lud Foe alongside the team’s players while leading them out of the tunnel, a boombox strapped over his shoulder.
S/o to Amir Khan, who’s come quite a long way from his days drumming and hitting Aluminum Bat-powered dingers on the fields of Backyard Baseball. Though betting odds did favor his headphone-wearing brother Achmed to grow up to be the music star instead.
––Peter & Kyle
On the clock: Today’s newsletter takes ~3.60 minutes to read (957 words).
For around a decade, Warren Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” has offered a $1M per-year-for-life prize to any of the ~400,000 people working at his companies who can prove themselves to be the Oracle of Madness, aka pick the first 32 games of the men’s NCAA tourney perfectly. And you thought your $300 bracket challenge was high stakes.
It’s a tall task
Choosing a perfect bracket is like the Hunger Games––hope as much as you want, but the odds are never really in your favor. The closest to perfection anyone in history has gotten occurred in 2019, when an Ohio man picked the first 49 games correctly (basically predicting the Sweet Sixteen).
- Entering this year’s Sweet Sixteen, zero perfect brackets remain across all major online men’s bracket challenges offering what Buffett might call piddly little prizes (ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, USA Today, and X's BCG).
So as you might expect––no one across the 60+ Berkshire-owned companies, spanning BNSF Railway to Geico to See’s Candies, ever claimed the grand prize. However, the consolation prize was $100,000 to the bracket that remained perfect the longest; someone won that prize every year, or multiple people split it.
Rule-change time: This year, Buffett tweaked the rules, saying he’ll give $1 million to anyone who correctly nails at least 30 of the first 32 games. Driving the switch? The 94-year-old told the Wall Street Journal: “I’m getting older…I want to give away a million dollars to somebody while I’m still around as chairman.”
Finally…“Chester Q. Brackington,” who sends daily updates to all Berkshire pool participants, on Friday wrote: “We have our first ever confirmed award of The Prize.” The winner was announced yesterday.
Outside of the Berkshire pool––not much Madness
When it comes to this year’s men’s tourney, Cinderella should have no problem making it home by midnight. Upsets have been few and far between; no team seeded #13 or higher advanced past the first round for the first time since 2017, while only one double-digit seeded team remains heading into the Sweet 16 (#10 Arkansas).
The games haven’t been particularly close, either. Only four of the 32 first-round games were decided by two possessions or less, the fewest since 1997.
See the latest brackets here: Men’s | Women’s
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📰 Catch Up Quick
Headlines
The Boston Celtics were purchased for $6.1B by a group led by private equity exec Bill Chisholm; the sale price marks a pro sports record. | …and the new owners are inheriting a $500M payroll conundrum.
The women’s NCAA tourney is also lacking upsets: No team seeded 11 or lower won a first-round game for the first time since the field expanded to 64 in 1994, with the average margin of victory clocking in 26.5 points, the highest of any round in tournament history. | …still, only 33 perfect brackets remain across all major online bracket challenges.
Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts hasn't played since before last week's Tokyo Series due to a mysterious illness that's left him unable to keep any food down; he's fallen from 175 to 157 lbs.
The opening day of men's March Madness (last Thursday) was the most-watched opening day in NCAA tournament history; TV coverage averaged 9.1M viewers, up 6% from last year.
📸 Pics from the Weekend
Boxing legend George Foreman passed away at 76. Foreman, who came from bleak beginnings, found his way to boxing at 16 and promptly won an Olympic gold medal at 19. He also won two heavyweight titles––the first in a historic match against Joe Frazier in 1973 (spawning the iconic call: "Down goes Frazier!”), and the second over two decades later when 45-year-old Foreman became the oldest world champion in history. Outside the ring, Foreman landed a gig pitching smokeless indoor grills over Hulk Hogan, with his brand selling 100+ million units since its introduction in 1994.
The F1 Chinese Grand Prix saw a trio of disqualifications. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were both DQ’d along with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly after post-race checks found technical infringements on their cars. Leclerc (who finished 5th) and Gassly’s (11th) cars were both ~2 lbs under the weight limit, while the skid plank underneath Hamilton's (6th) Ferrari was ~0.02 inches too worn (less than the thickness of a credit card). The DQs didn’t affect the podium, where Oscar Piastri and McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished first and second, respectively.
Upsets may be lacking, but buzzer-beaters are on pace for a historic year. 2025 men’s March Madness has seen two game-winning buzzer-beaters thus far: one from #16 Alabama State’s Amarr Knox, and the other from #4 Maryland’s Derik Queen. It’s the first time two such buzzer-beaters have occurred by the first weekend since 2018, and puts this year firmly ahead of the historical average (~1.6 per March Madness since it began in 1944).
👀 Top Plays
Wyatt Hendrickson secures biggest upset in NCAA wrestling history
When anger on the golf course backfires (See? It happens to pros, too.)
TA&M’s Christian Smith-Johnson robs grand slam with insane catch
Connor Hellebuyck delivers candidate for Save of the Year
JuJu Watkins injures ankle, hits the three anyways
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🔢 By the Numbers
Here are five stats from this past week that made our team say “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.
Novak Djokovic earned his 411th career ATP Masters 1000 match win on Sunday, surpassing Rafa Nadal for the most all-time.
Alexander Ovechkin, aka “The Great Eight,” scored his 888th career goal on Thursday; he’s now six goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL record.
The US Men’s National Team didn’t win the Concacaf Nations League for the first time since the tournament debuted in 2019, instead placing 4th (Mexico won).
Wisconsin won its record-extending eighth national championship in women's hockey, beating Ohio State 4-3 (OT); Wisconsin or OSU has won every title since 2019.
Penn State’s Carter Starocci became the first D1 wrestler ever to win five career national championships.
🌐 Web Gems
Cool things to click
Trouble with the curve? Scouting the aces who changed MLB teams this offseason.
Go deeper: Why we appear to be entering the limited-upset era of March Madness.
AI or human? Freestyle rapper Harry Mack visits Wrigley Field. Pure insanity.
🤔 Trivia
Pull a thread, watch it all unravel
Below you’ll find a series of clues, each pertaining to a different pro athlete, playing or retired. And like links on a chain, each is connected––every athlete shares either the same first or last name. (Ex: Joe Carter + Carter Capps; both share the name “Carter.”)
Ready?
- This athlete, nicknamed "the Judge," was the first MLB player to win an AL MVP and NL MVP.
- Nicknamed "the Admiral" for his service with the US Navy, this athlete was a 10-time NBA All-Star and is a current minority owner of the San Antonio Spurs.
- This 2B recorded the final walk-off hit in Yankee Stadium history, and snagged 1,695 hits in the 2010s, the most of any major league player during that decade.
- This athlete played for the Kansas City Monarchs before embarking on a 10-year MLB career. He also had a brother who won an Olympic silver medal behind Jesse Owens.
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🤔 Answer
