President Barack Obama

Please click here to see how Obama’s Barackets is doing after the Elite 8.

Despite many candidates vying for the role of Cinderella in the 2011 March Madness tournament, President Barack Obama’s Barackets remain super strong after the Sweet 16. The Barackets is still ahead of 96.8% of some 6 million ESPN Tournament Challenge entries because of the excellent upsets da Prez picked in the first and second rounds. However, the Barackets are now reliant only on Kansas, who the POTUS had picked to win it all.

You see, da Prez had picked all #1 seeds to go to the Final Four, playing it safe in a year when the parity in March Madness is arguably as much as it has ever been. All the upsets deep into the tournament backs the point, including three Number 1 ranked seeds gone by the Elite 8 with Kentucky’s huge upset over the Ohio State Buckeyes, and Duke’s big collapse against Arizona. With Kansas the only Number 1 remaining, the only points da POTUS could get now is from Kansas, in a phase where each game becomes increases in importance by magnitude such that all those upsets picked now are now only scratches in the total. They’re only good for separating the bestest from the best, but not too much otherwise.

If Kansas wins it all, then the President will likely beat the huge majority of ESPN bracket entries this year, like he is now. However, if Kansas does not, it’ll then depend on the spread of who picked the team who will win it all, and how far Kansas will carry da Prez’s Barackets.

Remember, Kansas let down da Prez last year by bowing out early, leaving da Prez finishing barely ahead of 51% of last year’s brackets. Will Kansas do the same again this year?

I’m only beating 82.1% of the ESPN brackets with my entry, but my hopes rest on North Carolina, as well as Kansas, though more UNC than Kansas as I had picked the Tar Heels to win it all… and I prefer their chances against Kentucky rather than Ohio State, for sure, despite Kentucky’s win!

So let’s get it on!

(For context, the leader board shows the top entries with 800 points, whereas President Obama has 660 points. I have 550 points. President Obama is ahead of all but 188,793 out of about 6 million entries.)