It had been a yearly tradition under the Obama Administration, but appears to be dead in the Trump Administration. That was the filling out of the NCAA Tournament bracket. Under Barack Obama, the President would fill out both a men’s and women’s tournament bracket. President Donald Trump will do no such thing this March.
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ESPN said in a statement:
“We expressed our interest to the White House in continuing the presidential bracket. They have respectfully declined.”
The White House issued its own statement to the Washington Post:
“We look forward to working with ESPN on another opportunity in the near future.”
ESPN knew that a change of Chief Executives would likely mean an end of the March tradition, but they made the request anyway. The idea had been hatched by ESPN college basketball insider Andy Katz who knew President Obama was a big hoops fan.
But now with a new President, ESPN will move on. As for the Presidential brackets, they’re the property of the Smithsonian Natural Museum of American History.
As the White House mentioned, it looks forward to working with ESPN on another idea. What that will be neither side is saying, but at least next month, fans who were had been used to comparing their own brackets to the White House will have to look somewhere else in March.
