March Madness is down to its Final Four, with a pair of No. 1 seeds, a No. 3 and a Cinderella still left in the field. The Villanova Wildcats have unquestionably put together the strongest run of any team in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and that comes after entering as the favorite.
Villanova is the odds-on favorite to win the national championship but doesn’t have the easiest road. The Kansas Jayhawks, the other No. 1 seed, will play Villanova in the semifinals, while the No. 3 seed Michigan Wolverines and No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago Ramblers face off on the other side of the bracket in the NCAA basketball Final Four odds.
Don't miss the hardwood action from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The Wolverines and the Ramblers will meet at 6:09 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 21, 2018. The Jayhawks and Wildcats will face off at 8:49 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 31, 2018. Catch every moment of the games live on TBS.
We'll have NCAA odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NCAA Saturday schedule.
Odds Analysis
Villanova enters the Final Four with odds of -104 to win the national championship, which are extremely strong odds considering it will need to win a pair of games to pull it off. The Wildcats are listed as five-point favorites to knock off Kansas in the semifinals. That would actually be the smaller spread as Villanova would be a strong favorite in the title game provided it gets there. The Wildcats are listed at -235 on the moneyline to win this game and make it to the finals.
Michigan has the next-best odds at +246. The Wolverines have a lower seed than either Villanova or Kansas but has the luxury of avoiding both of them in the semifinals. The Wolverines are five-point favorites against Loyola-Chicago in the Final Four. If Michigan can take care of business it will be one win away from the title. Therefore, the oddsmakers have pegged the Wolverines with the second-best chances to claim the championship. Michigan is a -240 favorite to win on Saturday against Loyola-Chicago.
Kansas has the third-best odds among the Final Four participants at +350. The Jayhawks are interesting because while they are the underdogs in the national semifinals, they would be the favorites against either Michigan or Loyola-Chicago in the championship game. The hard part, of course, is pulling off the upset of Villanova to make it there. The Jayhawks are listed as the +195 underdogs, which aren’t insurmountable odds. Kansas was an underdog against Duke in the Elite Eight and came away with the overtime victory.
And the team that rounds out the group is the Ramblers. They have the longest odds at +1251, but then again no one expected them to be here in the first place. It would be truly amazing for Loyola-Chicago to win the national championship as a double-digit seed. A number of mid-majors have made it to the Final Four in the past couple of decades but it’s really hard to do anything once here because the opponents are so good. The spread in the Final Four isn’t too big and the Ramblers would be an even more incredible story if they can make it to the championship game.
Free NCAA ATS Picks
Villanova doesn’t have an easy semifinal matchup but has such a great team that it is the easy pick. The next-best option would be Kansas because the national champion is likely to come from its side of the bracket.
Loyola-Chicago is a great story and the odds are intriguing but it’s too much of a longshot. Take Villanova to win the national title by putting together two more impressive performances in the Final Four. The Wildcats have been the best team in the nation all year and will drive that point home here in March Madness basketball betting.
NCAA Odds: Villanova 83, Loyola-Chicago 68 in national championship game
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