April 6, 2017
3 Purdue students win ESPN’s ‘Bracket Genius,’ $100,000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Three Purdue University students won ESPN’s “Bracket Genius” $100,000 trivia game show, which aired Tuesday (April 4).
The students — Kristen Mori, Andrew Eggert and Aric Kotarski — are juniors and members of the Purdue’s Sports Analytics Club. ESPN’s new game show featured teams from the schools participating in the men’s NCAA Sweet 16 round. Each “Bracket Genius” team was initially matched up against the same school as its own basketball team to answer various trivia questions that ranged from science to history to pop culture. Purdue’s “Bracket Genius” team beat Gonzaga in the final round.
This is the first year for the Sports Analytics Club. Mori, from Rockton, Illinois, is majoring in computer science and statistics; Eggert is majoring in atmospheric science, and Kotarski is majoring in applied statistics. Both Eggert and Kotarski are from Indianapolis. Many of the students in the Sports Analytics Club are majoring in statistics, and all are interested in the growing field of sports statistics. The club focuses on data for Purdue sports, fantasy leagues and sports polls.
“Bracket Genius” will re-air on ESPNU and ESPN2. Times are available through the Watch ESPN app or online. The show was hosted by Trey Wingo, ESPN personality and six-time Emmy award winner, and filming took place in Chicago.
Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu
Related website:
Intersport and ESPN announce new original series Bracket Genius