March Madness: Trouble Ahead For Barack Obama's Bracket
By John Dodge
CHICAGO (CBS) -- President and bracketologist Barack Obama has gone a respectable 14-3 so far in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
That ranks him in the top 2 percent in the country right now in ESPN's Tournament Challenge, but there is trouble ahead for him.
The Blue Devils are in the details.
You can forgive the president for not picking Mercer, who pulled off a stunning upset of mighty Duke on Friday.
However, the president had the Blue Devils making it all the way to the Elite Eight.
Plus he had the Ohio State Buckeyes, who were upset by Dayton on Thursday, going all the way to the Sweet Sixteen.
Amazingly, there were quite a few players who have still picked every game correctly in ESPN's game, despite a series of upsets. One player on CBS Chicago's Bracket Challenge also picked Mercer and is undefeated so far.
Nearly 97 percent of the ESPN players picked Duke in the first round.
The problem for the president is this: It is easy to recover from a few mistakes with first-round picks when points awarded are fewer. However, once players get farther into the tournament, they need their teams to stay alive when awarded points are higher.
So, one could expect the president's lofty rating to take a serious hit as the games continue.
Obama, who has picked a bracket every year as president, only correctly picked the national champion in 2009, North Carolina.
Last year, Obama's bracket ranked in the 74th percentile.
