 In the chalkboard gag in the episode's opening sequence, Bart backs the Villanova Wildcats, who won the 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game the day after the episode aired. Fans wondered why the show's staff were supporting Villanova over the North Carolina Tar Heels; one Internet writer hypothesized that it was a reference to the season 9 episode "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", in which after one of his typical alcoholic binges, Barney Gumble can only recall "giving a guest lecture at Villanova, or maybe it was a street corner."
