We are less than a month away from tournament tip-off and as the hype for March Madness grows, we give you a rundown on the odds for the top teams to take home this year’s NCAA men’s college basketball championship.
In what is easily the most wide-open field we have seen in years, there is a three-way logjam as favorite to cut down the nets on April 6 as Kansas, Baylor, and Gonzaga all top the list with +1,000 odds. Duke and Louisville, the two top teams in the ACC, come in next at +1,400 and +1,600, respectively, while undefeated San Diego State gives bettors odds of +1,800.
Oddsmakers at Bet365, one of the most popular online sportsbooks in the world, aren’t expecting a repeat champion as the Virginia Cavaliers sit at +5,500. Texas Tech, the 2019 runner up, comes in at +6,000.
Here are the updated odds for the Top 40 betting favorites:
Odds to win 2020 March Madness
| Team | Odds to win March Madness |
|---|---|
| Kansas Jayhawks | +1,000 |
| Baylor Bears | +1,000 |
| Gonzaga Bulldogs | +1,000 |
| Duke Blue Devils | +1,400 |
| Louisville Cardinals | +1,600 |
| San Diego State Aztecs | +1,800 |
| Dayton Flyers | +2,000 |
| Kentucky Wildcats | +2,200 |
| Maryland Terrapins | +2,200 |
| Oregon Ducks | +2,500 |
| Michigan State Spartans | +2,500 |
| Seton Hall Pirates | +2,800 |
| Auburn Tigers | +3,000 |
| Florida State Seminoles | +3,300 |
| Villanova Wildcats | +3,300 |
| Arizona Wildcats | +4,000 |
| Penn State Nittany Lions | +4,000 |
| West Virginia Mountaineers | +4,000 |
| Michigan Wolverines | +4,500 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | +4,500 |
| Butler Bulldogs | +5,000 |
| Creighton Bluejays | +5,500 |
| Virginia Cavaliers | +5,500 |
| Houston Cougars | +6,000 |
| Texas Tech Red Raiders | +6,000 |
| Illinois Fighting Illini | +6,000 |
| Colorado Buffaloes | +6,000 |
| Xavier Muskateers | +7,000 |
| Iowa Hawkeyes | +7,000 |
| Purdue Boilermakers | +7,000 |
| Marquette Golden Eagles | +7,000 |
| Wichita State Shockers | +7,000 |
| North Carolina Tar Heels | +8,000 |
| Memphis Tigers | +8,000 |
| Arkansas Razorbacks | +8,000 |
| Saint Mary’s Gaels | +8,000 |
| LSU Tigers | +9,000 |
| Florida Gators | +9,000 |
| Wisconsin Badgers | +9,000 |
| Tennessee Volunteers | +9,000 |
Understanding March Madness futures odds
Sportsbooks will post odds for the NCAA men’s basketball championship as early as the summer before the season starts. These odds are constantly adjusted throughout the offseason as players get hurt, suspended or are traded. Once the season begins in November, title odds will change as often as daily as teams win and lose games and as players get hurt or suspended. Sportsbooks will also adjust the March Madness futures odds based on handle and liability to certain teams.
March Madness futures odds will usually look like this:
- Kansas Jayhawks +1,000
This means that on a $100 bet, you’ll stand to win $1,100 if the Jayhawks win the NCAA men’s basketball title. If it’s close to the end of the regular season or even during the tournament and college basketball has a very dominant team, you might see that a team is has a minus sign (-) ahead of its odds.
- Duke Blue Devils -120
This means that you would need to bet $120 to win $100 on a Duke championship.
Above we have posted the American odds for March Madness futures. However, these are easy to convert to decimal odds or fractional odds with our odds converter tool.
How to bet college basketball futures
Predicting the winner of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is one of the hardest things to do in sports betting. The lose-and-go-home format and the fact that a school needs to win six straight games against quality opponents means that the favorites don’t always take home the title.
Another factor that comes into play is that the tournament bracket isn’t set until Selection Sunday, which falls on March 15, 2020, this year. As the college basketball season winds down, you can be pretty sure that the big favorites will slide into the bracket as top seeds. But for teams in the middle of the pack, nothing is certain. Take a team like North Carolina as an example. They sit within the Top 40 betting favorites at +8,000 but the Tar Heels are in the middle of a losing season and would likely need an ACC tournament win to go dancing in 2020.
As always when betting futures odds, be sure to look into injuries and suspensions. You might find some current value in a team that is expecting to get a key player back before March Madness begins.
