The brackets have just been announced. It’s time to start crunching numbers to weed out some March Madness winners on the futures odds! The Duke Blue Devils, North Carolina Tar Heels, Villanova Wildcats, and Kansas Jayhawks are all lined as favorites to cut the nets down in early April. The return on investment isn’t the greatest with each ranked No. 1 seeds, but top seeds often make it to the Final Four as well as the title game. Sometimes they don’t however, so let’s break down the field and look for some safe bets and lottery tickets that just might win it all.
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ODDS TO WIN 2017 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Duke +600
North Carolina +650
Kansas +850
Kentucky +850
Villanova +850
Arizona +1000
Gonzaga +1000
UCLA +1200
Louisville +1400
Oregon +2500
Florida +3000
Florida St +3000
Purdue +3000
SMU +3000
West Virginia +3500
Virginia +4000
Baylor +5000
Butler +5500
Iowa St +6000
Michigan +6500
Minnesota +7500
Notre Dame +8000
Wichita St +8500
Wisconsin +9000
Cincinnati +10000
Maryland +10000
Michigan St +10000
Oklahoma St +10000
Rhode Island +10000
St. Mary’s +12000
Northwestern +20000
South Carolina +20000
Virginia Tech +20000
Middle Tennessee St +25000
Arkansas +30000
Creighton +30000
Dayton +30000
Kansas St +30000
Marquette +30000
Miami FL +30000
Providence +30000
Seton Hall +30000
VCU +30000
Vanderbilt +30000
Wake Forest +30000
Xavier +40000
Nevada +50000
USC +50000
Princeton +85000
East Tennessee St +200000
Florida Gulf Coast +200000
Bucknell +500000
Iona +500000
Jacksonville St +500000
Kent St +500000
Mount St Marys +500000
NC Central +500000
New Mexico St +500000
New Orleans +500000
North Dakota +500000
Northern Kentucky +500000
South Dakota St +500000
Texas Southern +500000
Troy +500000
UC Davis +500000
UNC Wilmington +500000
Vermont +500000
Winthrop +500000
FAVORITE TO BACK: Arizona Wildcats +1000
The Wildcats are fresh off cutting down the nets in the Pac-12 tournament and invade Salt Lake City, UT winners of four straight both straight up and against the spread. They were able to avenge their only two defeats in league play against both UCLA and Oregon, and only have five teams with shorter odds ahead of them making them one of the more attractive favorites to cut the nets down.
Sean Miller’s squad looks to have finally put it all together. With Alonzo Trier now fully back in the mix, the Wildcats possess a solid offense to go along with a defense ranked No. 28 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency per the current KenPom Ratings. Lauri Markkanen has proven to be a competent big man in his freshman season, while junior Kadeem Allen is currently playing his best ball of the season.
Arizona won the Pac-12 regular season title as well, but most importantly, looks to have the second easiest path to the Sweet 16 of the No. 2 seeds. From there, it would play a couple games in San Jose, CA before closing things out back home in Phoenix where the national champion will be crowned. It never hurts to have home cooking on your side with everything on the line.
LONGSHOT TO BACK: Iowa State Cyclones +6000
The Cyclones might have finished fourth in the top heavy Big 12, but it closed the regular season out arguably hotter than Kansas, West Virginia or Baylor. Speaking of the Mountaineers, Steve Prohm’s kids just avenged their regular season loss to them by winning outright 80-74 as 4 point dogs in the conference title game. That made it three Big 12 tourney wins in the last four seasons for this veteran bunch.
Past Iowa State versions possessed unstoppable offenses and defenses that couldn’t prevent me and my four other buddies with dad bods from dropping 80 on them. While the former held true once again this season with the Clones tickling the twine for nearly 81.0 points per game, the defense was at least improved with it ranked No. 43 in adjusted defensive efficiency.
The furthest ISU has gone in recent NCAA tournaments has been the Elite 8, and that occurred way back in 2000. They have however had their march halted in the Sweet 16 two of the last three seasons. If it can find a way to get by Marcus Marshall and the pesky Nevada Wolf Pack, it has the offensive firepower to get the best of Purdue, Vermont, or Miami and has already beaten Kansas once this season. With the defense improved and Deonte Burton and Matt Thomas readily able to go HAM any given night, the Cyclones are as rabid as a dog can get.
ODDS MOVEMENT: Wisconsin Badgers +9000
The futures odds market has plummeted when it comes to the Badgers. As recently as two weeks ago, Wisconsin was installed a 30-1 dog to cut the nets down in the desert. Due to dropping three of four to close the regular season, those odds have now fattened up to 90-1.
Both Nigel Williams and Bronson Koenig saw their title dreams go up in smoke in the Sweet 16 last season. That made it five of the last six seasons that Wiscy at the very least made it to that round of the tournament. If it matches that feat come this weekend, it will have meant the program made it to the Sweet 16 in each of the last four NCAA tournaments. That my friends is consistency which shouldn’t be taken for granted regardless of how annoying the team has been for college basketball bettors to get a handle on.
The team doesn’t come without warts however. The defense has been extremely un-Wisconsin-like with it struggling to defend the arc, while the offense has gotten stuck in mud consistently over the last month. Most bothersome is the road to the Sweet 16 with it likely to match up with defending champ Villanova in the Round of 32 after Virginia Tech threw everything at them, including the kitchen sink, in the Round of 64. Still, this is just too much line value to pass on with the betting market clearly soured on this team.
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