President Barack Obama is not a professional college basketball analyst. But you might think otherwise if you visited the front page of espn.com today, where the President’s March Madness picks are getting top billing.
The President’s Final Four? Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas St. and Villanova. And Obama’s picked Kansas to win it all.
The biggest upsets on Obama’s bracket are #13 Murray St. over #4 Vanderbilt and #13 Siena over #4 Purdue, both in Round 1.
He picked #12 Cornell to beat #5 Temple in Round 1, ascribing to the conventional wisdom that one #12 seed wins a game every year (Although you’d think a Columbia and Harvard man would never pick the Big Red to win anything).
Obama also appears to have a soft spot for #10 seeds. He slotted in round 1 wins for three of them: Missouri, Georgia Tech and St. Mary’s.
Besides that, the President doesn’t have much love for Cinderella. The lowest seed he has in the Sweet Sixteen is Marquette, a #6 seed.
Last year, Obama correctly picked the University of North Carolina to win the tournament, and, according to NESN, finished just above the 80th percentile in the ESPN Tournament Challenge.
Watch Obama make his picks: