Campaign U.: McCain and Obama Campaigns Talk College*Basketball - Chronicle.com
March 21, 2008
McCain and Obama Campaigns Talk College Basketball
The presidential election is not the only contest Barack Obama and John McCain have on their minds these days. They also have given some serious thought to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, exhibiting the classic March Madness behavior of trying to forecast the winner of each round.
While Mr. Obama’s campaign has simply posted a list of his picks on its Web site, Mr. McCain’s campaign Web site has a slick interactive feature inviting his supporters to get in on the fun and watch how their teams fare.
Wiith the tournament halfway into its first round, Mr. Obama appears to be doing just a little better than fair — which leaves him doing just a little better than Mr. McCain.
Three of the teams Mr. Obama picked to win their first games — Winthrop, the University of Southern California, and Baylor — have instead gone down (though, wisely, he did not pick any of them as winners of the next round). So far, Mr. McCain has gone with four losers — Kent State University, the University of Arizona, the University of Georgia, and USC — and he had banked on USC winning in the second round as well.
Mr. Obama has predicted that the Final Four will consist of the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Kansas, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Pittsburgh. He has North Carolina beating UCLA in the championship.
Mr. McCain’s picks for the Final Four are the University of Connecticut, the University of Kansas, the University of Memphis, and North Carolina. He has the Tar Heels beating UConn in the championship.
Peter Schmidt | Posted on Friday March 21, 2008 | Permalink
