Year after year during his presidency, Barack Obama went on ESPN and filled out some chalky-ass brackets, with no more than an upset or two in the first round and almost all No. 1 and 2 seeds in the Final Four. At the time, maybe you could have justified Obama’s bracket conservatism by saying as president he simply didn’t want to piss anybody off. What would the folks in noted swing state North Carolina have thought if the commander-in-chief had their team losing in the second round to Creighton?
But now, Obama has left the White House, meaning he is free of bracketorial politics. He can pick whoever the hell he wants, and no one can hold it against him. Therefore, he has no excuse for the brackets he tweeted Wednesday for both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments.
Just because I have more time to watch games doesn’t mean my picks will be better, but here are my brackets this year: https://t.co/ETRchPcZxF pic.twitter.com/gnNXw0Ysxr
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 14, 2018
Let’s review these brackets:
- On the men’s side, Obama picks one 12-5 upset and two 11-6s, which is not exactly bold but is also fair and reasonable.
- However, his Sweet 16 features exclusively 1-5 seeds. He was one “upset” (No. 5 West Virginia over No. 4 Wichita State) away from an all-chalk second round.
- Just as bad, his Elite 8 includes all four No. 1 seeds, three No. 2 seeds, and one No. 3 seed.
- For the Final Four, he pegs two No. 1s, a No. 2 and a No. 3.
- Picking Michigan State to win it all counts as bold, we suppose, though most sports books have the Spartans as around the fourth most likely to go all the way. So Obama may be out on a limb, but it’s a sturdy one.
- Obama’s women’s bracket is even worse than his men’s one. Again, he has all four No. 1s and three of the four No. 2s in the Elite Eight, plus…
- ALL FOUR No. 1 SEEDS IN THE FINAL FOUR.
- And he has UConn winning it all, of course.
- Whoever assembled Obama’s bracket graphics conveniently left out the seeds, to prevent people from noticing how unadventurous his picks were.
Now, if you want to be cynical about this you could point out that Obama’s men’s Final Four is made up of schools that play in the swing states of Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Maybe he’s trying to pander to voters on behalf of the Democratic Party. Or maybe he’s just extremely lame at picking brackets, even in his post-presidency days.
