Da Prez only had hopes for Kentucky and Kansas State coming in, both of whom lost at a tournament bracket whopping 80 points per game in Round 4. To make things worse, Duke made it through, a popular pick among many brackets for the Final 4, who the President did not have… and neither did I. But I did have West Virginia.
With both Kentucky and Kansas State losing, da Prez officially had his Barackets closed out on Saturday night, just half way through Round 4, and could no longer earn points. That meant others would only pass him the rest of the way. It only remains to be seen how far da Prez will fall.
Well, after Duke and Michigan State won today, President Barack Obama’s Barackets is ahead of only 55.7% of the brackets on ESPN. From 88% to 56% in one day? OUCH! Da Prez went from an A to a D within a day!
With the next rounds having values of 160 and 320 points per game, respectively, and sufficient numbers picking West Virginia, Duke and Michigan State to do well in the Final Four, the President stands to fall even further. And like I said before, it only remains to be seen how far da Prez will fall.
My ESPN brackets had a tough Sunday as well, but I still have West Virginia remaining. Standing proud ahead of 89.5% of the brackets, I’m still getting an A. I had started out ahead of just 37% after Round 1.
So I’ve beaten da Prez again. Hehehe!
Pending what happens to close things out, I might even kick his butt! Actually, you might argue I’ve kicked his butt already if I’m sitting that far ahead of him.
However, it all means nothing. I could never get that health care bill da Prez got done in the US, and that’s by far the more important thing.
Obama’s Barackets is still doing relatively well because most people have also had their brackets busted open with all the upsets happening so far. However, on this last day of Round 3, the Cinderellas pretty much all went home. For this, Obama and others who had picked favourite teams that have been booted from March Madness will really start to feel that impact. There are now fewer games from which to get points, or compensate for those lost, and the games from now on continue to double in value from those of the previous rounds. Obama only has a potential 360 points remaining when each round remaining, including picking the overall winner, is worth 320 points each.
My ESPN brackets are also rather busted, but I have done well to this past round to jump from 846,668th place after Round 2, to 63,616th place or better than 98.6% of the brackets on ESPN. I’m beating da Prez now, 610 points to 550, but he has Kentucky and Kansas State remaining for elite teams potentially moving to the Final Four. I have West Virginia, Kansas State and Baylor, with the first losing an excellent player due to injury earlier this week so they’ll be in tough against Kentucky… and I have them in the Finals as well so that would be a devastating loss to my brackets.
Oh, well. At this point, I’m just enjoying March Madness as it’s been one of the better tournament in a long time. That Kansas State and Xavier game was definitely something else!
Let’s see what will happen this weekend!
p.s. Congratulations to Obama and the Democrats for passing that health care bill. It’s a good thing they passed it cause his Barackets might need some serious health care soon! 🙂
After a great Round 2 of major upsets in the 2010 NCAA March Madness Tournament, there’s not a lot of point asking most people how well their brackets are doing. The more appropriate question would be how hurting it is? And the popular standard is that of President Barack Obama’s Barackets.
Obama’s Barackets is scored on the ESPN scoring system. That rewards 10 points per correct game in the first round, 20 points in the second round, with 40, 80, 160 and 320 in the following respective rounds). President Obama is sitting at 430 points after two rounds. That is good for place number 341,292 of the over 4.5 million brackets on ESPN, or better than 92.8% of them so he’s still getting an A+.
However, the President only has 520 potential points remaining (PPR) with his overall champion Kansas gone, Villanova to the Final Four and Georgetown Elite Eight.
Personally, I trailed da Prez by 40 points after Round 1, but only trail him by 20 points now. Yet, the 20 point gain has allowed me to make tremendous gains. My ESPN brackets sat at place 2,978,307 or ahead of a very lousy 37.6 percent of the entries after Round 1. However, I now have 410 points, good enough for 846,668th place, and ahead of 82.2% of the brackets at ESPN or an A-.
But I do have a potential 640 points remaining compared to Obama’s 520, though I had also picked Kansas to win.
The leaders are well ahead of Obama and I, but this isn’t about winning as comparing yourself to da Prez! Still, I am amazed at their ability and luck to be doing so well.
Obama got 25 of 32 games correct for 250 points since each game in this round was worth 10 points. Three top entries were tied at a remarkable 310 points or 31 of 32 correct! There is no rewards for upsets in the ESPN system so these brackets encouraged going with the favourites rather than picking upsets. That left the President at a rank of 160,151 or sitting in the 96.6th percentile. That means he is ahead of 96.5% of the entries of over 4.5 million entries!
An analogy for that statistic would be the Prez is beating 29 out of every 30 entrants, sitting in 2nd place in such a sample. With over 4.5 million entries, that’s far more than a big enough sample to safely declare the President ahead of 96.5% of all bracket entries out there. He knew his basketball in Round 1, unlike last year when he admitted he got killed in the early rounds.
However, Obama could be in a lot of trouble for the next rounds, each of which is also worth 320 points.
That’s because Obama has already lost one of his Elite Eight teams in Georgetown. That’s 40 points he won’t be getting in that round for sure. I wonder if that were a political pick because Georgetown is, of course, in Washington DC. There weren’t too many Chicago or Illinois teams that stood much of a chance this year to go far.
Obama has also already lost two of his Sweet Sixteen teams with Georgetown and Marquette. That’s another 40 points he won’t be getting in that round.
ESPN lists Obama’s potential points remaining (PPR) at 1,520 after Round 1.
Of course, other people will have likely lost some of those teams already as well. The fact most of them lost more teams this first round only suggest they have a greater chance of losing more teams in the later rounds already than Obama. However, that’s not necessarily true.
My ESPN brackets are sitting at 210 points, or 2,978,307 or ahead of a very lousy 37.6 percent of the entries. Basically, I’m in 6th place out of every 8 people! OUCH! Yet, because I haven’t lost any Elite Eight teams, and the same Georgetown pick as Obama for the Sweet Sixteen, my potential points remaining is 1,580. That could make up the 40 points different the President has on me after Round 1. So despite being over 2.8 million spots back of da Prez right now, I could still end up putting the slamma jamma on Obama!
All that said, the President is doing relatively well among ESPN’s featured brackets.
President Barack Obama has finally revealed his 2010 NCAA Brackets today in a much anticipated event. I know how anticipated it was. My posts on his similar actions last year has been getting lots of hits since Sunday from people searching for Obama’s picks this year.
Printable version of President Barack Obama’s 2010 NCAA Barackets
2009 Barackets for reference
My Picks for ESPN’s Tournament Challenge (no value for upsets)
My Picks for the Score Challenge (potential bonuses for upsets)
Obama’s picks deserves to be highly anticipated, though! The Prez has had a great track record when it comes to picking winners of big American sporting events. He picked the Steelers to win the 2009 Super Bowl, North Carolina Tar Heels to win 2009 March Madness, and New Orleans Saints to win the 2010 Super Bowl. Obama did reasonably well in last year’s tournament, despite picking poorly in the first rounds and picking mostly favourites otherwise, since March Madness is traditionally a tournament of upsets. His track record suggests that you don’t bet against da Prez when all the money is on the line, though!
Looking at the Barackets this year, Obama has generally played it safe again. Where he has upsets, I can see reasons why like Sienna over Purdue with the Boilermakers not playing well right now. Obama has picked all the #1 seeds to go to the final four except Duke, despite the general opinion out there that Duke has the easiest road to the Final Four. I suspect that Duke elimination pick has something to do with Obama’s fondness for North Carolina, who he had rightly picked to win it all last year, and had played some hoops with them. Of course, Duke will be seeing Villanova for a third time if it comes to that, when the Prez has the Wildcats beating the Blue Devils this time around, so it’s not just some pick out of the blue. Still, not a lot of experts are picking Duke to lose to ‘Nova. Obama has also picked #1 overall Kansas Jayhawks to win, despite having played hoops with Kentucky on Jan 27 2010. Keep one thing in mind, though, playing it safe with the rankings in March Madness is a risky move because it’s not called March Sanity for a reason!
So, looking at Obama’s Barackets, I want to know if you think your brackets are better than his, or if you’ll be taking some advice from him? I’m going to assume that if you’ll take some advice from him, you’ll be intending to make your brackets better than his so don’t claim it as being better if you used some advice from his picks… unless you’ve already submitted and are now having second thoughts, hehehe.
Now, last year, I kept track of Obama’s performance through several popular point systems, each of which would cause you to pick very differently. I’m going to do the same after each round again so please do come back and see how you fared against da Prez, pending which scoring system you will be playing (if you play one of the systems below)!
We’ll see what you’ll be saying then!
Oh, btw, I’ll be making my picks soon and coming back to share. I’ll compare them to Obama’s Barackets to see if I’ll change anything.
(32 points per round like CBS Bracket Challenge, or 320 points per round like ESPN)
If you are in a betting pool with your NCAA brackets, chances are you are using this scoring system. This system rewards 1 point for a win in the first round, 2 in the second, 4 in the third, 8 in the fourth, 16 in the fifth and 32 to the ultimate winner. Upsets gives nothing extra. ESPN uses 10 points instead of 1 per game. I don’t know why. Maybe they think their audience is better at math or something???
The maximum points is 192 for CBS, and obviously 1920 for ESPN.
Scoring System 1 + 1
(scoring system 1 + 1 point for each upset)
Some pools reward upsets in a minimal sort of way with one point for each upset. It’s not much but it could make the difference between similar results of correct games picked.
Scoring System 1 or D
(scoring system 1 or ranking difference for upsets)
This system is used by the Canadian channel The Score in its pool. It allows you to get some separation in the first few rounds by picking the upsets because it’s not worth it to risk the upsets in the latter rounds, where the high seed teams tend to go through so their ranking difference is minimal, meaning you’d get the same points if you pick the higher or lower team.
Scoring System 2
(1 point per game)
This European style scoring system values the overall judgment and minimize fluke results of someone selecting the correct ultimate winner despite performing not so great otherwise.
The maximum points for the first four rounds is 63.
Digital Citizen 