Barack Obama Reveals His 2024 NCAA Men's and Women's March Madness Bracket Picks

Former United States President Barack Obama released his bracket picks for the 2024 NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments on Tuesday.

Obama, who has shared his brackets publicly ever since taking office in 2009, picked UConn to beat Kentucky in the men's national championship game and South Carolina to defeat Iowa in the women's national championship game:

Speaking on the Ways to Win podcast with his brother-in-law, former Oregon State head men's basketball coach Craig Robinson, and Kentucky head men's basketball coach John Calipari, Obama noted that he hasn't had much success with his brackets since correctly picking North Carolina to win the men's tournament on his first bracket in 2009.

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In addition to top-seeded UConn and No. 3-seeded Kentucky, Obama chose another No. 1 seed in Purdue and another No. 3 seed in Baylor for his Final Four in the men's bracket.

On the women's side, Obama went with three No. 1 seeds in South Carolina, Iowa and USC, and a No. 2 seed in Stanford for his Final Four.

Notable first-round upsets in Obama's men's bracket include No. 13 Vermont over No. 4 Duke, No. 11 New Mexico over No. 6 Clemson and No. 11 NC State, fresh off a Cinderella run to win the ACC tournament, over No. 6 Texas Tech.

The only two first-round upsets Obama picked in his women's bracket outside of the 8 vs. 9 matchups were No. 10 UNLV over No. 7 Creighton and the 11th-seeded winner of the Arizona vs. Auburn play-in game over No. 6 Syracuse.

Regarding his winners, Obama is banking on Connecticut to go back-to-back in the men's tournament. If the Huskies do so, they will be the first back-to-back men's champs since Florida in 2006 and 2007.

UConn was a surprising winner last season, but it won't sneak up on anybody this season, as head coach Dan Hurley's team is the No. 1 overall seed with a 31-3 record.

Obama is banking on the 32-0 South Carolina Gamecocks completing a perfect season in the women's tournament. South Carolina last won a national title in 2022, and it reached the Final Four last season, where it got upset by Iowa.

Led by superstar guard Caitlin Clark, Iowa lost to LSU in the national championship game last season, and Obama has the Hawkeyes finishing as the runner-up for a second straight year.

In terms of his bracket-picking history, Obama has only chosen the men's champion correctly twice, that being UNC in both 2009 and 2017. This year marks the first time he has chosen UConn to win the men's tourney, per Jack Baer of Yahoo Sports.

Obama has chosen the right women's champion six times, including South Carolina in 2022. His South Carolina pick didn't work out last year, but he still went back to the well by choosing the Gamecocks for a third consecutive year.