Nate cracks me up sometimes:
Is President Obama playing favorites with his NCAA bracket? Neither Columbia University nor the University of Chicago have an entry in the Big Dance (the Maroons, alas, aren't even in D-1). Nor does the University of Hawaii or Oregon State University, where Michelle Obama's brother, Craig Robinson, is the coach. The University of Illinois did make the bracket as a #5 seed; Obama has them winning their first round game against Western Kentucky, but then succumbing to the #4-seeded Gonzaga.
There is more than one way, however, for the President to play favorites. Was Obama more inclined to select teams from swing states that were closer in last November's election? A bit of reverse engineering of his bracket suggests that the answer is a qualified yes.
There are 63 games in the men's tournament. In one case, two teams from the same state (Louisville and Morehead State, both from Kentucky) are set to square off. In the other 62 games, Obama has the team from the state which was closer in the November election advancing 35 times (56% of the total).
<snip>
Although Obama did not pick very many upsets, just about every time he did it tended to favor the team from the swingier state. With that said, there are a couple of upsets that Obama could have reasonably picked but didn't, such as #3-seeded Missouri over #2-seeded Memphis or #2-seeded Michigan State over top seed Louisville.
But yes: the President does appear to have been mixing his hoops with his politics. Will the nation ever recover?
More:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/03/obama-ncaa-bracket-shows-bias-toward.htmlObama's bracket:
http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/entry?entryID=2813746-------------
One thing for sure, he doesn't think much of the Pac 10 (and none of those schools are in swing states). May he be proven wrong!