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Former President Barack Obama, an avid basketball fan, shared his 2024 March Madness brackets for the men's and women's tournaments on "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday. The 62-year-old has a yearly tradition of revealing his tourney picks.
What are Barack Obama's 2024 March Madness brackets?
In the men's Final Four, Barack Obama selected top-seeded UConn, No. 3 Kentucky, No. 1 Purdue and No. 3 Baylor. As far as his predicted winner goes, he is banking on the Huskies to go back-to-back.
His notable first-round upsets include No. 13 Vermont over No. 4 Duke; No. 11 New Mexico over No. 6 Clemson; and No. 11 NC State, fresh off an Atlantic Conference Tournament title, over No. 6 Texas Tech.
For the women's Final Four, Obama opted for No. 1 seeds South Carolina, Iowa and USC, alongside No. 2 Stanford. He picked undefeated South Carolina to win it all.
In the women's bracket, his only first-round upsets beyond the 8 vs. 9 matchups are No. 10 UNLV over No. 7 Creighton and the 11th-seeded winner of the Arizona vs. Auburn play-in game over No. 6 Syracuse.
Why does Barack Obama release his March Madness brackets?
Barack Obama's annual March Madness bracket reveal has become a tradition since his presidency began in 2009.
Appearing on the "Ways to Win" podcast, hosted by his brother-in-law Craig Robinson, the former POTUS shared a humorous rationale behind this practice.
"My attitude is, you know, it gives people great pleasure with all the intelligence I have available to me – you know, the CIA, the NSA, all of that input – when they beat me, they feel good. I want to give people that satisfaction," he said.
What does Barack Obama's bracket-picking history look like?
Obama's bracket-picking prowess has been underwhelming, correctly predicting the men's champion just twice: UNC in 2009 and 2017.
This year, he's backing UConn, marking the first time he's chosen them, per Yahoo Sports' Jack Baer.
On the same podcast, Obama acknowledged that his brackets haven't been stellar:
"They thought, 'Look at the president of the United States. He's in the top 4% of all the people who enter in their brackets publicly.' And I was kind of feeling it, and I thought, 'You know what? I think this is what's going to happen every year.' And I'm pretty sure each year I've lost since then. So, I have not necessarily picked a winner (lately.)"
Obama has displayed greater accuracy with the women's tournament, correctly picking the champion six times, including South Carolina's 2022 title. Despite last year's misstep, he's doubling down on the Gamecocks for the third consecutive year.
