According to the most recent Bracketology forecasts, nine Big Ten teams are comfortably in the NCAA Tournament. Fourteen teams make the B1G their home, so it can be postulated that the Big Ten is the most dominant conference in the country; for the second straight season. This tourney has been dominated by the Michigan schools in recent years. Michigan State took home the hardware in the most recent back in 2019, but it was Michigan that cut the nets down each of the prior two seasons. While Michigan is currently the odds on +175 favorite to take home bragging rights for the third time in the last four seasons, Tom Izzo’s Spartans offer up a nice 500-1 return on investment should it go on to shock linemakers at online sportsbooks. But as competitive this conference proved to be over the course of the regular season, just about any team can go on a major run to secure an auto bid to the dance. The following are team’s I’ve already invested in to win the Big Ten Tournament in-season, and will also be making wagers on now with the tourney set to tip-off on Wednesday.
The Big Ten Tournament is set to tip-off on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. The games will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network and CBS.
College Basketball Futures at BookMaker.eu
ODDS TO WIN BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
Michigan +175
Illinois +425
Purdue +500
Ohio State +685
Wisconsin +1100
Rutgers +2500
Michigan State +5000
Maryland +6500
Indiana +8000
Minnesota +10000
Northwestern +15000
Penn State +20000
Nebraska +100000
Favorite to Bet: Michigan Wolverines +175
If you’ve read any of my stuff over the course of the regular season, you’ll know I’m extremely bullish on the Maize and Blue. Investments have already been made back in January on Juwan Howard’s kids winning the B1G and NCAA Tournaments at +375 and +750 respectively. Though the Wolverines closed their regular season out with losses in two of their final three played games, it doesn’t faze me one bit. Negative regression was bound to hit this team sooner or later since it wasn’t going to sustain the level of play if put forth coming off a COVID pause. Bottom line, this team knows how to get the job done, and I seriously don’t believe there’s a team in the country that can withstand Michigan at either end of the court when its 100 percent locked in on the task at hand. It’s actually a good thing for CBB bettors that haven’t gotten a piece of Michigan on the futures odds just yet with the recent losses slightly fattening up their rates of return. The time to back Isaiah Livers and company is right now with more stockpiled wins only bound to shorten up their odds of winning both tournaments. If you wait any longer, the value will pass you by!
Underdog to Bet: Purdue Boilermakers +500
This was a toss-up for me between the Boilers and Fighting Illini. I wouldn’t argue with you ignoring my suggestion and running with Brad Underwood’s squad with the team playing with ultimate confidence right now having rattled off four straight wins and pointspread covers with the last three coming at Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State. Regardless, I’m going to take a shot with Matt Painter’s crew who quietly logged an 18-8 SU and 14-10-2 ATS campaign to lock down the tourney’s No. 4 seed and double bye. That means they’ll be forced to take on Minnesota, Northwestern or Ohio State in the semis, and they excelled against each team in the regular season in going 1-1, 1-0 and 2-0 respectively. From there, they’ll be forced to run up against Michigan who should handle Sparty with the hated rivals locking horns for the third time in eight days. Though the Boilermakers got worked by the Wolverines at home back on January 22 (70-53), they’re a much different team now than they were then having rattled off five straight wins and covers against the closing college basketball odds. This team rates out very well at each end of the court according to the Pomeroy Ratings, and could experience an extra dose of home cooking with the tourney taking place in their own backyard. At 5-1, Trevion Williams and company are very much so worthy of at least a beer money investment!
Longshot to Bet: Rutgers Scarlet Knights +2500
MSU is likely to be a very popular choice for value seekers with Izzo’s kids offering up a 50-1 return on investment. But when it looks too good to be true, often times it is. I will be staying very far away from Sparty since it has a date with vengeful Michigan in the quarters should it find a way to dispose of a Maryland team that throttled them a few weeks back. Instead, I’ll hitch my wagon to Steve Pikiell’s Scarlet Knights who grossly underachieved over the course of the regular season. It did however play to one of the toughest schedules in the country and was forced to deal with a number of unforeseen obstacles due to injury and the coronavirus. This team is much better than its 10-10 SU conference record suggests. It won’t be easy to cash this ticket in, but is it ever easy to come out a winner backing teams at such long odds? Rutgers will start off against an Indiana team it swept in the regular season, and would then run up against a much different Illinois team it beat in a shoot-out way back in late December. Win that game and it will likely be either Wisconsin or Iowa standing in their way of reaching the finals. It lost both regular season tilts versus the Badgers and Hawkeyes by an average of just 4.0 points per game. Simply put, there’s value here with a Scarlet Knights team that knows it grossly underachieved the last few months. However, it’s the healthiest it’s been all season and owns some exceptional talent on the roster. Should Geo Baker find the HAM switch that’s eluded him for most of the season, Rutgers could go on a run for the ages. At 25-1, a futures investment is certainly worth a dart throw!
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