Features to Debut on SportsCenter: Men’s on Wednesday, March 13, and Women’s on Friday, March 16; Both Brackets Available on ESPN.com President Obama’s Final Four Selections:
Men’s: Kentucky, Ohio State, Missouri and North Carolina
Women’s: Baylor, St. John’s, UConn and Notre Dame
Women’s: Baylor, St. John’s, UConn and Notre Dame
President Barack Obama filled out his bracket predictions for the 2012 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments today exclusively with ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz (men’s) and ESPN basketball analyst Doris Burke (women’s). Segments from the interview will begin running on tonight’s 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET SportsCenters as well as Wednesday’s Good Morning America with the debut of his complete men’s and women’s brackets on the 9 a.m. SportsCenter Wednesday, March 14, and Friday, March 16, respectively. Both interviews will also be available on ESPN.com and ESPN Mobile platforms, and on subsequent editions of SportsCenter and various ESPN platforms, following the debuts.
The President is predicting a Men’s Final Four of Kentucky, Ohio State, Missouri and North Carolina, and a Women’s Final Four ofBaylor, St. John’s, UConn and Notre Dame. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN FULL COURT will present all 63 games from the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship for the 10th consecutive year from March 17-April 3.
This marks the fourth straight year in which President Obama has completed a men’s bracket exclusively with ESPN and the third he has publicly provided his bracket for the women’s tournament. Katz and Burke, who have attended all respective sessions provided insights about today’s White House visit to ESPNFrontRow.com in an interview that will be posted later today.
President Obama’s men’s and women’s brackets will be posted on ESPN.com shortly after each is unveiled on SportsCenter and will appear alongside those from the millions of fans expected to play in ESPN.com’s ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Infiniti USA and ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge.
Tournament Challenge History
In 2011, the Men’s Tournament Challenge game was the most popular bracket game in the nation with more than 5.9 million brackets, breaking the previous record high of 4.8 million brackets set in 2010 by 24 percent. President Obama’s 2011 men’s bracket ranked 746,086overall, placing him in the 87.4th percentile. While he didn’t predict any of the Final Four teams in the previous two years, he correctly picked North Carolina to win the National Championship in 2009. President Obama placed in the 77.09th percentile of his women’s bracket entry last year.
In 2011, the Men’s Tournament Challenge game was the most popular bracket game in the nation with more than 5.9 million brackets, breaking the previous record high of 4.8 million brackets set in 2010 by 24 percent. President Obama’s 2011 men’s bracket ranked 746,086overall, placing him in the 87.4th percentile. While he didn’t predict any of the Final Four teams in the previous two years, he correctly picked North Carolina to win the National Championship in 2009. President Obama placed in the 77.09th percentile of his women’s bracket entry last year.
Both the Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Infiniti USA and Women’s Tournament Challenge games return for their 15th seasons and are free for fans to submit up to ten entries on ESPN.com. Participants complete and submit a bracket of forecasted tournament game outcomes and points are awarded for each correct pick, with point values increasing as the tournaments progress.
2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament on ESPN Platforms
ESPN.com will have complete round-by-round coverage of the tournaments from its line-up of experts and analysts including Edward Aschoff, Eammon Brennan, Kevin Gemmell, Andy Katz, Jason King, Lunardi, Myron Medcalf, Dana O’Neil, and Robbi Pickeral. Additionally, ESPN Insiderwill include a number of additional exclusive features before, during and after the tournament to help break down who gets off the bubble, who is most likely to be this year’s Cinderella and who will be the breakout stars of the tournament.
Additionally, fans won’t be far from checking their brackets while on the go with the 2012 updated ESPN Bracket Bound app available now in the App Store and Android Market. The free to download app features:
- Nightly video highlights and analysis from ESPN’s college basketball experts;
- Latest news columns and blogs from Katz, Gottlieb, Bilas and others;
- Live game-following experience around the nation plus live events via WatchESPN;
- Aggregated Twitter talent feeds;
- Customizable with favorite teams for easy access to schedules, custom news, video, Twitter and more;
- Bracketology by Lunardi;
- Sign-ups for Tournament Challenge, where fans can join groups, create and manage their brackets and follow all the action in real-time on the go.
ESPN Mobile will also carry complete coverage from writers and analysts, keeping fans up to date on the latest news and highlights on mobile devices via a special section on the new ESPN mobile Web. Additionally, fans can sign up for ESPN Alerts to receive real-time information on the game (scores, starts, etc.), breaking news, upsets and more.
Outside of the U.S., ESPN International has exclusive multimedia and syndication rights to the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. ESPN television networks and broadband services are the home for live television and streaming coverage of tournaments, bringing the passion and pageantry of U.S. college sports to hundreds of millions of homes in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
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