Barack Obama Reveals Bracket Predictions for NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Former president Barack Obama carried out his time-honored March tradition on Thursday: revealing his bracket.
The noted hoops fan made his picks for the NCAA men's basketball tournament public on the morning of the first round. As he often did when he was in office, Obama leaned heavily on the blue bloods to make deep runs this year.
🚨 @BarackObama's Bracket!
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 17, 2022
Final Four picks:
🏀 Gonzaga
🏀 Kentucky
🏀 Arizona
🏀 Kansas#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/aABZZDQz5j
He has three No. 1 seeds—Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas—making it to the Final Four, along with No. 2 seed Kentucky out of the East region. In the title game, Obama has Gonzaga cutting down the nets for the first time, knocking off Arizona.
In the earlier rounds is where the 44th president takes some risks. Most notably, he has No. 13 Vermont knocking off Arkansas in the first round, and has No. 11 Michigan making it to the Sweet 16. The only No. 1 seed he has not advancing to the Final Four is Baylor—Obama predicts the defending champs to be bounced out of the regional semifinals against No. 4 seed UCLA.
Obama also picked Gonzaga to win the title last season, which didn’t work out so well for the Bulldogs, as they were blown out in the national title game. Surely Mark Few and company will hope for better results this time around.
More College Basketball Coverage:
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- The Top-50 Men’s Players of the 2021–22 College Basketball Season
- Heights, Camcorders and Action: Chet Holmgren Is Ready for His March Madness Close-up
- This Is March: Jon Rothstein Gets Stuck on Plane on First Day of NCAA Tournament

Nick Selbe is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about baseball and college sports. Before joining SI in March 2020 as a breaking/trending news writer, he worked for MLB Advanced Media, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. Selbe received a bachelor's in communication from the University of Southern California.
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