The 2021 TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge Champion Hails From PBS NewsHour

The Baylor University Bears are your 2021 NCAA men’s basketball champions, dominating the Gonzaga University Bulldogs during last night’s championship game and ruining what would have been the first undefeated season for a Division 1 men’s college basketball team since the University of Indiana in 1976.

Baylor’s victory means that we have a new TVNewser March Madness Bracket Challenge champion for 2021: PBS NewsHour senior vp and general manager Michael Rancilio!

“Delighted to have won this year’s pool especially considering such esteemed and knowledgeable competition,” Rancilio told TVNewser. “But, to be honest, I realize the only reason why I prevailed was because Judy Woodruff’s beloved Duke Blue Devils did not make the tournament disrupting her typically smart bracket projection.”

Mike Rancilio

Rancilio earned 123 points en route to his title, and was followed by Bloomberg Markets: The Close co-host Romaine Bostick with 115 points, CNBC anchor/senior national correspondent Brian Sullivan with 109, CBSN svp and senior executive producer Darius Walker with 101 points, and The Weather Channel on-air meteorologist Paul Goodloe rounding out the top five with 99 points.

Rancilio, Bostick and Goodloe were the only participants to have Baylor winning it all.

Although she had the most correct picks of any participant, and held first place going into the Final Four, Bloomberg TV anchor and editor at large Francine Lacqua dropped to sixth as a result of Gonzaga’s loss.

Rounding out the top 10 are CNBC Power Lunch co-anchor Tyler Mathisen, PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff, NBC News chief White House correspondent and Saturday Today co-host Peter Alexander; CNBC senior producer Jessica Golden edged her colleague Closing Bell co-anchor Sara Eisen for 10th (with the national championship game score being the tiebreaker).

Alexander, Woodruff and Goodloe also earned top 10 finishes in 2019.

Fox Nation host Abby Hornacek won the 2019 Bracket Challenge with a whopping 141 points, but fell to 23rd place this year.