In the same way that New Year's Day comes shortly after Christmas, Barack Obama's March Madness brackets always come days after Selection Sunday.
The 44th President of the United States is a proud hoops junkie who has made it a tradition to reveal the results of his NCAA Tournament picks. Obama fills out brackets (in writing!) for both the men's and women's tournaments, capped off with his signature at the bottom of the printed sheet.
He hasn't had much success on the men's side, last picking the correct national champion in 2017 when he selected North Carolina. On the women's side, Obama got it right as recently as 2022 with South Carolina, but he also had a stretch of picking six correct winners (UConn five times, Baylor once) in seven years from 2010-16.
Who did 44 go with to win the men's and women's national championships this season? The Sporting News breaks down his brackets below.
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Barack Obama's 2024 men's March Madness bracket
Obama is riding with No. 1 overall seed UConn to win the 2024 men's national championship.
The former president went with a Final Four of No. 1 UConn (East), No. 3 Baylor (West), No. 3 Kentucky (South), and No. 1 Purdue (Midwest).
Obama had Kentucky taking down Zach Edey and Purdue in the Final Four, then UConn over Kentucky to take home the hardware.
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
EXPERT PICKS: DeCourcy (UConn) | Bender (UConn) | Iyer (UConn) | Yanchulis (South Carolina women)
There weren't many major upsets in his bracket. No. 13 Vermont over No. 4 Duke was the most notable, especially considering Obama picked Duke to win the national championship as a No. 5 seed last year.
He had Kentucky upsetting No. 2 Marquette and No. 1 Houston to reach the Final Four, as well as Baylor pulling off wins over No. 2 Arizona and No. 1 North Carolina to reach the same stage.
If Obama's pick is correct, UConn will become the first back-to-back national champion since Florida in 2006-'07.
WOMEN'S MARCH MADNESS HQ
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Barack Obama's 2024 women's March Madness bracket
Obama is also riding with No. 1 overall seed South Carolina to win the 2024 women's national championship.
He went with a Final Four of No. 1 South Carolina (Albany 1), No. 2 Stanford (Portland 4), No. 1 Iowa (Albany 2) and No. 1 USC (Portland 3).
Obama had Caitlin Clark and Iowa defeating Juju Watkins and USC in the Final Four, then South Carolina handling business against Clark in the Hawkeyes in the title game.
His biggest upset on the women's side was No. 4 Gonzaga taking down No. 1 Texas in the Portland 4 portion of the bracket. Obama also had Clark and Iowa defeating Angel Reese and LSU in a rematch of last year's national championship game in the Elite Eight.
If 44's prediction is correct, basketball fans will be the real winners, watching Clark try and dethrone an undefeated South Carolina team that would be 36-0 going into the championship.
