President Trump will not carry on Obama’s annual tradition of filling out an NCAA tournament bracket on ESPN, a report says.
The decision to do away with the March Madness ritual this year was confirmed Wednesday by White House spokesman Hope Hicks, who spoke to the Washington Post via email.
“We look forward to working with ESPN on another opportunity in the near future,” she said in a statement.
After taking office in 2009, ESPN began airing an annual Sportscenter segment with President Obama titled “Barack-etology.”
The commander-in-chief wound up filling out eight men’s and seven women’s NCAA tournament brackets — picking the eventual winner on just one occasion, when he chose North Carolina in 2009.
ESPN told the Post that they ultimately wanted to pass the torch to President Trump — but he reportedly refused.
“We expressed our interest to the White House in continuing the presidential bracket,” the network said in a statement. “They have respectfully declined.”
ESPN basketball analyst Andy Katz told The Post back in December that he figured Trump would back out, since he’s not a fan of college hoops.
“The bracket idea worked because President Obama follows basketball and is passionate about the sport,” Katz said. “He wasn’t as dialed in to every player or team but had conversational knowledge to offer his own analysis on the NCAA tournament for the men’s and women’s game.”
Filling out the NCAA tournament brackets has become such a popular tradition that two of the brackets that Obama filled out are now sitting in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
“Baracketology was a success because it was clear he was a fan of the sport and the NCAA tournament, like millions of other Americans,” Katz concluded.
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