March Madness has officially begun. It’s Selection Sunday (you know, #selectionsunday) which means NCAA Tournament brackets have been released and work acquaintances can spend the next few weeks being kind-of-friends as they fill out their office brackets and maybe even meet up on the weekends to watch college basketball games.
The No. 1 seeds are Kentucky, North Carolina, Syracuse, and Michigan State. Unfortunately for President Obama, who has a particular knack for filling out brackets with an eye toward both winning the White House office pool and the hearts of independent voters, only two of those top teams are from swing states. (If Obama wins Kentucky, he’s winning everything.) Obama’s bracket this year will be especially scrutinized, and he might do well to give, say, the Ohio State Buckeyes or Indiana Hoosiers an edge. He’ll be able to defend his bracket when CBS interviews him and British Prime Minister David Cameron at halftime during the tournament’s first game on Tuesday. Tuesday’s game will pit the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and will be held — surprise! — in Dayton, Ohio.