Over the years, the NCAA tournament has grown into one of the largest cultural events in our country. People of all ages, races, jobs and backgrounds get excited for March Madness – filling out a bracket and comparing their picks with friends.
This year, ESPN’s Tournament Challenge had a special entry into the competition: President Barack Obama.
President Obama has been fairly outspoken about college sports in his brief time in the public eye.
Early in the presidential campaign, Obama mentioned the possibility of using his presidential powers to influence college football and the problems associated with the controversial BCS. Obama submitted his bracket on Wednesday. Here is a brief analysis of his entry:
First Round Upsets:
Midwest: none
East: No. 9 Tennessee over No. 8 Oklahoma State and No. 11 VCU over No. 6 UCLA.
West: No. 10 Maryland over No. 7 California.
South: No. 9 Butler over No. 8 LSU and No. 11 Temple over No. 6 Arizona St.
Final Four Picks:
Midwest: No. 1 Louisville
East: No. 1 Pittsburgh
South: No. 1 North Carolina
West: No. 2 Memphis
National Champion: North Carolina Tar Heels
Editor’s Analysis: President Obama’s selections came as a bit of a surprise, as I always understood him to be an avid sports fan. I thought he would have understood that there is always at least one 12 seed that upsets a 5 seed (usually more than one), and often there is at least one team to fall as high as a 3 or 4 seed. I would hardly agree that Obama’s “upsets” are in fact upsets.
They are upsets by seed only – the teams playing are so similar that the seeds could very well be reversed and no one would know the difference. All we really know from this bracket is that Obama dislikes the PAC-10 conference, picking three PAC-10 teams to get upset in the first round.
As for the championship game, Obama has a history of favor with North Carolina, playing a pick up game with the Tar Heels last April when he was in North Carolina for the Democratic primary. Obama said on ESPN.com the ‘Heels “experience and balance” give them the edge over other teams.
