Making his final Barack-etology selections as President of the United States, Barack Obama hopes to end his final year in office with a winner on the men’s side – picking No. 1 seed Kansas to top No. 2 seed Michigan State in the National Championship game on April 4 from Houston. Since making his bracket predictions – starting with his first year in office in 2009, President Obama has picked just one correct champion in North Carolina, in that first year.
Andy Katz – the mastermind behind securing President Obama’s yearly predictions – has visited the White House all eight years for the men’s selections, plus the women’s in 2013. ESPN analyst Doris Burke worked with President Obama the first three years of the women’s bracket (2010-012), while analyst Rebecca Lobo has stepped in the final three years.
“The President was a Cinderella as a candidate eight years ago but he has gone with the favorites in each year of his presidency,” Katz said. “The presidential bracket has been a non-partisan, American endeavor that he has enjoyed filling out with us like every other fan and it has been a great run. Let’s see if he can bookend his presidency with a winner in his first and last year.”
On the women’s side, Obama is claiming UConn as the eventual champs in Indianapolis on April 5. The President predicted a Women’s Final Four of UConn, Florida State, Notre Dame and South Carolina with the Huskies topping the Fighting Irish for the third straight year in the title game. The President’s record in selecting the Women’s National Champion is 4-2 over the last six years, picking UConn correctly in 2015, 2014 and 2010, and Baylor in 2012.
“He is knowledgeable of the women’s game, and it seems like he enjoys this process each and every year,” Lobo said. “I wonder if he’ll buy a big white board and fill out the brackets with Andy [Katz] next year, and if so, I hope I’m invited to help fill out the women’s!”
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