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Barack Obama March Madness bracket: How does he rank Florida teams in the NCAA Tournament?

C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·4 min read

Barack Obama, former president of the United States and noted basketball fan, has released his NCAA March Madness brackets.

He doesn't seem too impressed with the Florida teams.

On his brackets for the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments he posted to X, formerly Twitter, early Tuesday morning, he chose only one of the five Florida teams on the list to advance past the first round with none of them making it past the first weekend.

Who does President Barack Obama like in the 2024 March Madness men's and women's bracket?

Obama played it safe on the men's teams for the most part, with UConn, Baylor, Kentucky and Purdue in his Final Four spots. He did choose 11 seed New Mexico beating 6 seed Clemson in the West and 13 seed Vermont whooping 4 seed Duke in the South, but overall his pics are fairly straightforward.

His ultimate winner: No. 1 overall seed UConn to take back-to-back championship titles after their 2023 win.

For the women, the former president favored higher seeds with three No. 1 seeds – South Carolina, Southern California and Iowa – along with No. 2 seed Stanford in the Final Four. Obama picked South Carolina to triumph with a second national championship in three seasons.

"And please don’t rub it in when my bracket gets busted," he said.

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How did Obama rank the Florida teams in the 2024 March Madness?

Not well.

Of the Florida teams that earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, Obama picked only the University of Florida men's team to move into the second round with a defeat against Boise State and Colorado.

The other four — Florida Atlantic University men's team, Stetson University men's team, Florida State University women's team and Florida Gulf Coast University women's team — never make it past the first round on the former president's bracket.

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How accurate are President Barack Obama's March Madness picks?

Since he began publicly releasing brackets in 2009, Obama has picked the men's tournament winner twice and the women's winner six times.

"The first year I did this, 2009, I'd been sworn in," he told Craig Robinson and Kentucky coach John Calipari on the "Ways to Win" podcast. "I picked North Carolina. This is the one with (Tywon) Russell and (Tyler) Hansbrough. And they won. My bracket was beautiful, and people were pretty impressed. They were like, 'Look at the President of the United States, he's in the top 4% of all the people who enter in their brackets.'

"And I was kind of feeling it. I was like, 'You know what? I think this is what's going to happen every year,'" Obama said. "And I'm pretty sure I've lost since then. So I have not necessarily picked a winner. And I'm a little sad about that."

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President Obama's previous men's picks

  • 2023 — Pick: Duke | Winner: UCONN

  • 2022 — Pick: Gonzaga | Winner: Kansas

  • 2021 — Pick: Gonzaga | Winner: Baylor

  • 2019 — Pick: Duke | Winner: Virginia

  • 2018 — Pick: Michigan State | Winner: Villanova

  • 2017 — Pick: North Carolina | Winner: North Carolina

  • 2016 — Pick Kansas | Winner: Villanova

  • 2015 — Pick: Kentucky | Winner: Duke

  • 2014 — Pick: Michigan State | Winner: Connecticut

  • 2013 — Pick: Indiana | Winner: Louisville

  • 2012 — Pick: North Carolina | Winner: Kentucky

  • 2011 — Pick: Kansas | Winner: Connecticut

  • 2010 — Pick: Kansas | Winner: Duke

  • 2009 — Pick: North Carolina | Winner: North Carolina

President Obama's previous women's picks

  • 2023 — Pick: South Carolina | Winner: LSU

  • 2022 — Pick: South Carolina | Winner: South Carolina

  • 2021 — Pick: Baylor | Winner: Stanford

  • 2019 — Pick: UConn | Winner: Baylor

  • 2018 — Pick: UConn | Winner: Notre Dame

  • 2017 — Pick: UConn | Winner: South Carolina

  • 2016 — Pick UConn | Winner: UConn

  • 2015 — Pick: UConn | Winner: UConn

  • 2014 — Pick: UConn | Winner: UConn

  • 2013 — Pick: Baylor | Winner: UConn

  • 2012 — Pick: Baylor | Winner: Baylor

  • 2011 — Pick: UConn | Winner: Texas A&M

  • 2010 — Pick: UConn | Winner: UConn

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Barack Obama's March Madness 2024 bracket: Florida not in Final Four