NCAA Tournament Field is Set with Duke, Arizona Among Favorites
The NCAA Tournament field is set. All 68 teams know if they're headed to the Big Dance, which begins this week, and who they'll match up with. Duke is the top overall seed, which isn't surprising. They dominated en route to a two-loss season and won 17 Quad 1 games. Here's how everything shook out.
East Region in NCAA Tournament
Here are all the first-round matchups
- (9) TCU vs. (8) Ohio State
- (16) Siena vs. (1) Duke
- (11) South Florida vs. (6) Louisville
- (14) North Dakota State vs. (3) Michigan State
- (12) Northern Iowa vs. (5) St. John's
- (13) Cal Baptist vs. (4) Kansas
- (10) UCF vs. (7) UCLA
- (15) Furman vs. (2) UConn
There are no play-in games here. All games begin Thursday for the first round, which will be held in Greenville, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and San Diego. Duke is the favorite to win the whole tournament, so they're the favorites to make it out.
West Region in NCAAT
Here are all the first-round matchups. There is a play-in game between two 11 seeds: Texas and NC State:
- (12) High Point vs. (5) Wisconsin
- (13) Hawaii vs. (4) Arkansas
- (11) Texas/NC State vs. (6) BYU
- (14) Kennesaw State vs. (3) Gonzaga
- (16) LIU vs. (1) Arizona
- (9) Utah State vs. (8) Villanova
- (15) Queens vs. (2) Purdue
- (10) Missouri vs. (7) Miami (FL)
These games will be held in Portland, St. Louis, San Diego, and Dayton. Arizona is +400, which is the third-best odds, to win it all, making them the clear favorites to survive the West. Queens is making its NCAA Tournament debut this year as a 15 seed.
Midwest
The Midwest also has two play-in games, the first between two 16 seeds: UMBC and Howard. You may recall that UMBC was the first-ever 16 seed to upset a number-one seed. They took down Virginia in 2018. Two 11 seeds, Miami (OH) and SMU, will also face off.
Here are the games:
- (16) UMBC/Howard vs. (1) Michigan
- (9) Saint Louis vs. (8) Georgia
- (10) Santa Clara vs. (7) Kentucky
- (15) Tennessee State vs. (2) Iowa State
- (12) Akron vs. (5) Texas Tech
- (13) Hofstra vs. (4) Alabama
- (14) Wright State vs. (3) Virginia
- (11) Miami (Ohio)/SMU vs. (6) Tennessee
The games will be held in Dayton, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Tampa, and St. Louis. Unsurprisingly, Michigan is the favorite here. They're +350, so they're only narrowly behind Duke to win the entire NCAA Tournament.
South
The First Four play-in game is between the 16 seeds, Prairie View and Lehigh. After that, games will begin again on Thursday:
- (13) Troy vs. (4) Nebraska
- (12) McNeese vs. (5) Vanderbilt
- (11) VCU vs. (6) North Carolina
- (14) Penn vs. (3) Illinois
- (10) Texas A&M vs. (7) Saint Mary's
- (15) Idaho vs. (2) Houston
- (9) Clemson vs. (8) Iowa
- (16) Prairie View/Lehigh vs. (1) Florida
The games will be in Dayton, Greenville, Oklahoma City, and Tampa. Florida is +700, by far the worst odds for any number one seed. Houston is +1000, making them the top two seed in terms of betting odds.
NCAA Tournament betting trends
According to ESPN, bettors are loving a couple of number two seeds: UConn and Purdue. Both have the pedigree and recent success with shorter odds that bettors believe will pay out better than taking Duke or another top team in the NCAA Tournament.
Purdue and UConn are 30-1 and 35-1, respectively, and they are, according to the report, two of the most money-backed teams in the betting market. The Boilermakers, in particular, are very interesting. They have the fifth-most attention at DraftKings. Someone also placed a $100,000 bet at BetMGM that they'd make the Final Four.
Iowa State (15-1) and Illinois (19-1) join Duke, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, and Houston as teams with shorter than 20-1 odds. Put simply, everyone else is a pretty big long shot. The bottom of the odds board has 14 teams at 200-1, which is mostly made up of lower seeds that people won't bet on anyway.
Interestingly, five-seed St. John's has significantly better odds than three-seed Virginia. The seven-seed UCLA Bruins are better bets than the four-seed Nebraska Cornhuskers, too.
