Open Lines 12 year old wins ESPN NCAA basketball bracket, gets no prize.

[surge]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...-prize-for-winning-espn-bracket-im-irritated/
A sixth-grade boy from suburban Chicago beat millions in completing a near-perfect bracket predicting the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and finished in a tie for first in ESPN’s annual contest.

Sam Holtz said ESPN officials told him Tuesday that is he ineligible to claim the top prize — a $20,000 gift card — because he’s only 12 years old. ESPN requires participants to be at least 18 to win the prize. Instead, he was told he will get a goody bag from the cable network.
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Technically, ESPN is right to deny payment. The rules were plain when the boy entered the contest. However, placing the 20k in a college trust fund for the young man would buy ESPN a lot of good publicity.

 

[Debi]

That would be nice for the boy, but what about next year, Surge? How many kids would enter just to see if they could get a college fund? I can see why they don't want to set a precedent on this one for that reason.

 

[surge]

I see not wanting to set a precedent too, but I sort of feel like this one is on them for having a loophole that allows for underage contestants. Just require a copy of a valid ID accompany all entries, and that should solve the problem. I'm actually surprised there wasn't already some sort of verification in place.

 

[Debi]

Did the contest rules not state only over the age of 18?

 

[surge]

The rules did state 18 or over to be eligible, so ESPN is within their rights to not pay up. If it was my money I'm sure I'd be a stickler for the rules being followed too! J just think, with technology where it is today, it would be simple enough to verify age before even accepting the brackets.