One of the world’s most famous basketball fans revealed his 2024 NCAA basketball tournament brackets. Former President Barack Obama shared his March Madness bracket exclusively on “CBS Mornings” Tuesday, and he explained why he makes his picks public each year. 

For the final four of the men’s tournament, Obama chose UConn, Kentucky, Baylor and Purdue, with UConn and Kentucky in the final and UConn winning for the second straight year. 

For the women’s final four, he has South Carolina, Stanford, USC and and Iowa, with South Carolina and Iowa in the finals and South Carolina winning.

Obama has publicly released his bracket every year since taking office in 2009. “He completely gets it wrong every time,” CBS News’ Vlad Duthiers remarked while sharing the brackets on “CBS Mornings.” “He only got it right once, but he says it’s all par of his master plan.”

On the “Ways to Win” podcast, hosted by his brother-in-law Craig Robinson, Obama explained why he releases his brackets. 

“My attitude is, you know, it gives people great pleasure with all the intelligence I have available to me – you know, the CIA, the NSA, all of that input – when they beat me, they feel good. I want to give people that satisfaction,” he joked. 

Obama predicted the winner of the 2009 NCAA tournament – North Carolina – and people were impressed of the new president’s basketball knowledge. 

“They thought, ‘Look at the president of theUnited States. He’s in the top 4% of all the people who enter in their brackets publicly.’ And I was kind of feeling it, and I thought, ‘You know what, I think this is what’s going to happen every year,'” he said on the podcast.  “And I’m pretty sure each year I’ve lost since then. So, I have not necessarily picked a winner [lately].”

The odds of a perfect bracket are 1 in 120 billion. But two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates attempted to build a computer model that would beat the odds. “Picking the teams that are going to win that are like the favorites, that will get you an OK bracket. But if you want to win, you gotta pick the upsets. That’s the secret sauce,” Tauhid Zaman told Duthiers last year. 

If you don’t have access to such technology, Shawn Chao recommends keeping an eye on the first round, saying there are “typically” about “10 upsets or so.” 

“Some of the most common upsets are the sixth-ranked team and the 11th-ranked team, where the 11th-ranked team actually beats the sixth-ranked team about 3/7 of the time,” Chao said. 

CBS and TBS will televise 21 games each during the NCAA Tournament, while truTV and TNT will carry 13 and 12, respectively. 

Caitlin O’Kane

Caitlin O’Kane is a New York City journalist who works on the CBS News social media team as a senior manager of content and production. She writes about a variety of topics and produces “The Uplift,” CBS News’ streaming show that focuses on good news.