Barack Obama's March Madness brackets 2026: Former president picks Arizona men, UConn women as champs

Former U.S. president Barack Obama's March Madness picks have long been an annual tradition, and the former Commander in Cheif is back at it with full men's and women's brackets for 2026.

Obama nailed both national champions in 2024, but he whiffed on both in 2025, picking Duke to win the men's bracket and South Carolina to win the women's tournament. Instead, Florida and UConn claimed those respective titles.

The 44th president isn't necessarily known for bold picks, but that strategy worked well last year when higher seeds dominated both tournaments. Is he picking any upsets this year?

Here's a look at Obama's NCAA Tournament men's and women's brackets.

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Barack Obama's 2026 men's March Madness bracket

Obama is picking Arizona to go the distance and win its first national championship in 29 years.

The former president's Final Four only includes two No. 1 seeds: Arizona and Duke. He has Duke defeating No. 3 Illinois in one national semifinal and Arizona defeating No. 2 Iowa State in the other, with the Illini taking down both No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Houston on the way.

Obama's bracket is short on first weekend upsets. The lowest-seeded teams he has advancing past the first round are No. 11 South Florida, No. 10 Missouri and No. 10 UCF. Obama's Sweet 16 consists of seeds 1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2-3-3-3-3-4-4-5-5, so he isn't expecting many upsets in the second round, either.

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Barack Obama's 2026 women's March Madness bracket

Obama is rolling with the favorite on the women's side, picking UConn to win a second consecutive championship. He has the Huskies taking down UCLA in the national title game.

The former president also has No. 1 South Carolina and No. 1 Texas in his Final Four, so he doesn't anticipate any surprises. 

Obama doesn't have a single double-digit seed winning in the first round, while No. 5 Ole Miss and No. 5 Maryland are his only Sweet 16 teams outside the top four seed lines.