March Madness: Former President Barack Obama is going with the two favorites to win the NCAA tournaments
Obama has two No. 1 seeds in the Final Four on the men's side and three top seeds in the women's Final Four
Former President Barack Obama is rolling with the two favorites to win the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments.
Obama continued his annual tradition of releasing his March Madness picks on Tuesday and has defending national champion UConn beating Kentucky in the men’s final and South Carolina taking down Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the women’s final.
My picks are in! I sat down to talk about them with @CraigMalRob and @UKCoachCalipari on their podcast Ways To Win from @HGMedia. Check out our conversation wherever you get your podcasts. And please don’t rub it in when my bracket gets busted. https://t.co/pVLfuHjYmo pic.twitter.com/la2NTDh1z7
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 19, 2024
UConn is +400 to win the men’s NCAA tournament and is the most-bet team to win at BetMGM. South Carolina is a remarkable -120 to win the women’s tournament — the Gamecocks were -145 a season ago before losing to Iowa in the Final Four — and Iowa is getting the most bets of any women’s team win the title.
You don’t have to go back far to find the last time Obama picked a winner on the women’s side. This is the third consecutive year he’s gone with South Carolina and the Gamecocks won the title in 2022. You have to go back a bit to find his last correct men’s winner prediction. The last time an Obama-picked team won the men’s tournament was North Carolina in 2017.
A season ago, Obama had Duke beating Houston in the national title game. UConn beat San Diego State to win last year’s championship.
Obama has two No. 1 seeds and two No. 3 seeds in the Final Four on the men’s side. He has No. 3 Baylor advancing out of the West over UNC and No. 3 Kentucky taking down Houston in the Elite Eight to win the South. He’s picking No. 1 UConn to beat No. 3 Illinois in the Elite Eight in the East, and No. 1 Purdue beating No. 2 Tennessee to advance to the Final Four out of the Midwest.
On the women’s side, Obama’s two other Final Four teams are Stanford and USC. The Cardinal are his only non-No. 1 seed to advance to the Final Four. He has No. 2 Stanford beating No. 5 Gonzaga in the Elite Eight in the Portland 4 region.
His big upset in the men’s bracket is No. 13 Vermont over No. 4 Duke in the first round. He has all five No. 5 seeds advancing out of the first round and No. 11 seeds NC State and New Mexico winning their first round games.
In the women’s bracket, the 44th president has No. 11 Arizona beating No. 6 Syracuse as his biggest upset.
