President Obama Releases 2015 NCAA Tournament Picks

In his yearly tradition, President Obama has just released his picks for the 2015 NCAA tournament. And while his final four is fairly predictable — he has Kentucky against Arizona and Villanova versus Duke — he has some unconventional upsets.  But before that, he has Kentucky and Villanova vying for the National Championship with the undefeated Wildcats capping off a perfect season.

As for his biggest upset on the board, he has the two-seed Gonzaga losing to the ten-seed Davidson in the round of 32. Plenty analysts believe that this is one of Gonzaga’s best teams in years, yet he has Davidson — a team that is 1-4 against top 25 schools — somehow overcoming them.

But this is not the only upset on the board. He also has the eleven-seed Ole Miss over six-seed Xavier, Ohio State over VCU and Texas winning against Butler: all of these are popular upsets, according to ESPN’s bracket tracking. On top of this, he decided to surprisingly pick Buffalo over West Virginia because he likes former Duke player Bobby Hurley‘s scrappiness, which has translated to his team. And finally, he believes that the six-seed Providence could be upset by Dayton or Boise State — they play today to determine who makes it to the round of 64.

Besides these opening round picks, the rest of his bracket is fairly normal. The final four is how most see it, minus the interchangeability of UVA and Villanova. And the only surprise in his elite eight is having Iowa State in over Gonzaga. So this seems like a pretty straightforward year for the President and most people making their selections: there are a set group of teams that seem destined to go far in the tourney.

In 2014, President Obama finished with an average 72.9 percentile overall, according to ESPN. And he has only correctly picked the champion once, in 2009 with UNC. For his full bracket, head on over to ESPN.