In an ESPN exclusive, President Barack Obama filled out his bracket predictions for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships today with Andy Katz. SportsCenter unveiled his bracket during the 7 a.m. ET edition, including his Final Four prediction that has Kansas topping North Carolina in the National Championship game on April 4 in Houston. The President is predicting a Men’s Final Four of Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina and Texas A&M.
“The President was a Cinderella as a candidate eight years ago but he has gone with the favorites in each year of his presidency,” said Katz. “The presidential bracket has been a non-partisan, American endeavor that he has enjoyed filling out with us like every other fan and it has been a great run. Let’s see if he can bookend his presidency with a winner in his first and last year.”
ESPN women’s basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo also visited the White House for the completion of the women’s bracket, which will be exclusively unveiled on the Thursday, March 17, at 7 a.m. edition of SportsCenter.
Both interviews will also be available on ESPN.com, on subsequent editions of SportsCenterand various ESPN platforms following their debuts.
In addition, ESPNU will televise Tournament Countdown: Barack-etology on Wednesday, March 16, at 5:30 p.m. The fourth consecutive year of the special program will include additional men’s footage, behind-the-scenes access and bracket analysis.
This marks the eighth straight year President Obama has completed a men’s bracket exclusively with ESPN.
Katz – a regular contributor to ESPN.com, his role on-air has continued to grow, which now includes hosting Emmy and Murrow-award winning Outside the Lines series when Bob Ley is unavailable and ESPNU’s Katz Korner – conceived the idea of the President filling out a bracket on air following an interview with him in 2008. He has conducted the interview with the President on his tournament predictions all eight years.
President Obama’s men’s brackets will appear alongside those from the millions of fans expected to play in ESPN.com’s free ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by Acura, Allstate and Microsoft.
In 2015, President Barack Obama finished in the 39.5 percentile with a rank of 6,996,358 in the men’s tournament. The president’s bracket was officially busted during the Final Four after Wisconsin knocked off Kentucky, the team he predicted to win it all.