Arizona basketball is Barack Obama’s pick for March Madness

Barack Obama might not be in office anymore, but that does not mean he has stopped filling out NCAA Tournament brackets. The former United States president continued the tradition in 2026, picking Arizona to come out on top of his March Madness bracket.

Obama was one of many celebrities who sent their brackets to the official March Madness media channels. The 64-year-old former president had Duke, Iowa State and Illinois joining the Wildcats in his Final Four projections.

Barack Obama's bracket!

Arizona wins it all
USF > Louisville
Illinois eliminates Florida #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/us123NZv56

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 18, 2026

Obama is notoriously inaccurate when it comes to predicting March Madness champions, potentially casting a spell on Tommy Lloyd’s team. Yet, he is far from the only college basketball fan expecting Arizona to hoist the trophy in April.

The Wildcats have been a popular pick to win the championship since the brackets opened Sunday night. Arizona is the second-most-picked national champion, only trailing No. 1 overall seed Duke.

As a former Illinois Senator and a resident of Chicago, Obama is unsurprisingly biased toward the Illini, picking them to upset two-seed Houston and one-seed Florida en route to the Final Four. However, he did not pick his hometown team, Hawaii, to beat Arkansas in its first-round matchup.

The former president has always been reserved with his picks and maintained that status in 2026. He has only two double-digit seeds, No. 10 UCF and No. 11 South Florida, winning their opening-round matchups against UCLA and Louisville, respectively.

Obama used to fill out his bracket live on ESPN while he was in office, becoming the first president to do so. His successor, Donald Trump, did not carry on the tradition, but Obama continues to share his March Madness picks with college basketball fans.

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