Why would a president, facing persistent inflation at home, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and other issues, take the time to participate in the annual sports fan ritual of March Madness?
This year's “madness” began on March 17, when an NCAA-appointed committee announced it had selected 68 college basketball teams in each of two divisions (men's first division and women's first division) to compete in the national championship. As determined by the committee, teams will be divided into four brackets and seeded from 1 to 16 from highest to lowest. The last surviving men's team will meet in the championship game on April 8th, and the women's surviving team will finish on April 7th.
Tens of millions of college basketball fans will participate in the parenthesis ceremony, including the president if he chooses. This ritual involves predicting the winning team from the first round of the match.
It is almost impossible for anyone to predict the winner of every match. The probability of filling in a perfect bracket is estimated to be 1 in 147 trillion attempts.
Following in the footsteps of former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden has filled the spots for the 2024 NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments. This year, Biden is playing it safe by choosing: The No. 1 seeds in both tournaments aim to win the national championship.: South Carolina for the women and University College for the men.
Biden's forecast should be better than last year. It was then that the No. 2 seeded University of Arizona, the No. 1 favorite to win the men's tournament, was upset by Princeton University in the first round.
Biden may be participating in March Madness because, like other presidents, he enjoys the competitive nature of the sport. And, as journalist Chris Silitza has written, sports allow presidents to “cultivate a positive image of the presidency and speak to audiences they might not otherwise be able to reach.” In this case, Biden is taking the opportunity to continue acting like his regular fans.
But as co-author Tom Morris and I observed in our research for a book on the relationship between sports and politics, presidential involvement in sporting events comes with both risks and rewards.
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Sports fans, not politicians
Presidents have attended sporting events at least since April 14, 1910, when William Howard Taft threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day for the Washington Senators. And the president regularly invites the winning teams to the White House to publicly praise their accomplishments.
But Obama, an avid basketball fan, was the first president to reach the NCAA Tournament. The idea arose late in the 2008 presidential campaign, when ESPN reporter Andy Katz asked President Obama, “If you win, why don't you come to the White House and play an NCAA Tournament game?” Proposed.
Mr. Obama agreed. After winning the 2008 presidential election, he implemented that policy.
On March 18, 2009, Katz interviewed Obama about his selection on ESPN's “SportsCenter.” Katz said President Obama took the job seriously. “I chose President Obama not as a politician, but as a sports fan. He was very knowledgeable about the team and up to date on the latest injuries involving candidates. … It was clear that they enjoyed filling their slots just like the rest of the world.”
Obama supporters welcomed his participation in March Madness, but some opponents criticized the move as a frivolous diversion. The president must certainly have more work to do. Why do we take the NCAA Tournament so seriously?
But President Obama's failure to qualify for the women's tournament prompted criticism that he was not taking women's basketball seriously enough.
USA Today columnist Christine Brennan criticized President Obama, saying, “As the father of two athletic daughters, he should know all too well the importance of sports to women and girls.” .
From that point on, Obama completed a berth in both the men's and women's tournaments. He was interviewed on ESPN about his selection for both tournaments.
At least one of President Obama's braces is in the Smithsonian Institution.
the choice to win
During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney chose not to bracket, drawing a contrast with Obama. “We're not strong enough to do that this year,” Romney said.
Although Obama defeated Romney in the election, Romney ultimately proved to be a better predictor of NCAA Tournament basketball games.
Three years later, Romney participated in the ESPN Tournament Challenge as a private citizen and credited the network with a “tremendous success.” He predicted all of his teams in the final four of the men's tournament, putting himself in the top 1% of those who filled in the slots, making headlines such as “Romney slot defeats Obama camp.”
Evaluating Obama's predictions has become a regular part of March Madness. Analysts didn't just criticize President Obama's relatively poor track record in predicting outcomes. They also considered how those choices reflected his efforts to connect with people.
Sports Illustrated evaluated President Obama's performance over eight years and concluded, “President Obama has used basketball as a way to bond with the American people, but his NCAA Tournament selection has had its ups and downs.” .
Trump has no marching madness.
Obama, a basketball enthusiast, continued to fill spots in the NCAA men's and women's tournaments even after leaving office. Meanwhile, his successor, President Donald Trump, rejected ESPN's invitation to complete what is known as the “presidential slot.”
Maybe Mr. Trump was too busy to care about basketball, or maybe he didn't want anything to do with Mr. Obama. Nevertheless, Trump left open the possibility of future involvement with sports. And he accurately predicted the 2017 Super Bowl winner.
“We look forward to working with ESPN on another occasion in the near future,” White House Press Secretary Hope Hicks said in a statement.
enjoy the madness
Mr. Biden returned to Mr. Obama's ways, but without the same fervor or enthusiasm. In 2023, Biden submitted his bracket just minutes before the start of Game 1.
Unlike Obama, who regularly attended pickup games and had a basketball court installed on the White House grounds so he could practice shooting, Biden isn't really into basketball. After all, he grew up playing baseball and was the star receiver on his high school football team.
The president may be playing politics when it comes to filling NCAA slots, or he may just be taking the time to enjoy the madness.
