It’s all about betting on top seeds for business mavens making their picks for who will be crowned national champion of men’s college basketball.
(Bloomberg) — It’s all about betting on top seeds for business mavens making their picks for who will be crowned national champion of men’s college basketball.
Nearly 40% of the roughly 50 participants in this year’s Bloomberg Brackets for a Cause chose top-seeded Alabama to win the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, which begins first round games on Thursday.
Fans of the Crimson Tide include Carlyle’s new CEO Harvey Schwartz, Tony Ressler, owner of the Atlanta Hawks and co-founder of Ares Management, and Jenny Johnson, the Franklin Templeton CEO who won Bloomberg’s charity competition in 2021.
As part of the fundraiser, which began in 2015, entrants donate $20,000 and select a charity that receives funds if they are a top-three finisher in the men’s or women’s bracket. The women’s tourney, which kicks off its first round on Friday, is being included for the first time.
On the men’s side, the picks continue a trend of Wall Streeters selecting the top seed. In 2022, more than 40% chose Gonzaga University, which got bounced in the Sweet 16.
University of Houston — the betting favorite at most sportsbooks — is the second most popular pick to win the Big Dance, with Michael Bloomberg and quant investor Cliff Asness from AQR Capital Management selecting the Cougars. Alabama and Houston are led by first-team Associated Press All-Americans in Brandon Miller and Marcus Sasser, respectively.
Purdue University was tapped by six of the participants. Gary Cohn and Jefferies CEO Rich Handler are among those who think the Boilermakers can win a title after failing to make it to the Final Four for the past 40 years. Reigning champion University of Kansas was picked by Pershing Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman to cut down the nets, with Ventas CEO Debra A. Cafaro and Cohn expecting them to lose in the title game on April 3.
For the most part, Wall Street has embraced the top-rated teams across the tournament. About three-quarters of the Final Four teams selected are one or two seeds, however, UBS Asset Management President Suni Harford and Peak6 Investments co-founder Jenny Just have some of the most bold calls on who will play in Houston next month. Harford tapped Xavier University to take down fellow three-seed Baylor University, while Just’s Final Four consists of five-seed Duke University, the four-seed Indiana Hoosiers, six-seed Creighton University and the four-seed UConn Huskies.
Here is a look at some of the other picks from this year’s participants:
- Defending champion Jonathan Gray, Blackstone President, has Purdue beating Texas in the title game. Last year, Gray correctly picked the Jayhawks to win the title. This year, he sees Alabama and UConn joining the Boilermakers and Longhorns in the final weekend.
- Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who was last year’s runner-up, sees the Crimson Tide besting the Houston Cougars in the championship with Texas A&M dancing to the Elite Eight.
- Warburg Pincus CEO Chip Kaye and General Atlantic Chairman Bill Ford both have Texas beating Alabama in the title game.
- Hershey CEO Michele Buck’s Final Four is all chalk. She has top seeds Alabama, Purdue, Houston and Kansas — with the Crimson Tide cutting down the nets.
- Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has Duke in the Final Four alongside UConn, with Alabama over Houston for the title.
- Terry Lundgren, the former CEO of Macy’s, is a University of Arizona graduate and has the Wildcats beating Texas in the title — so does Jay Clayton, former US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman.
- Citadel founder Ken Griffin sees Duke taking down Marquette to advance to the Final Four and has Purdue getting upset by the University of Memphis in the second round. He likes Alabama to beat defending champion Kansas in the title.
- Tudor Investments founder Paul Tudor Jones also has Memphis upsetting the Boilermakers in the second round and has Duke topping UCLA to win the championship.
- Z Capital Group founder James Zenni, who finished third last year, has a Final Four of Alabama, Gonzaga, Purdue and Texas with the Crimson Tide picked to beat the Zags.
–With assistance from Michael Boyle.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.