The NCAA Tournament is ready to get underway. With a dominant year at the top of the sport, there are a few heavy favorites to win the national championship. However, the top three teams that have dominated the sport this year – Duke, Michigan, and Arizona – are all from different conferences.
The ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 lead the way in terms of the national championship odds, while reigning national champion Florida leads the way for the SEC. So which conference is most likely to cut down the nets?
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NCAA Tournament Champion: Conference Odds, Predictions
As mentioned earlier, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC all have a No. 1 seed, giving each conference a solid chance to win it all. However, the secondary tier of contenders is where each conference starts to separate in the market.
The Big 12 clearly has the highest quantity and quality of championship contenders. Even with season-ending injuries to Texas Tech's JT Toppin and BYU's Richie Saunders limiting the long-shot contenders, Arizona still has high odds to win it all. Additionally, the conference also has No. 2 seeds Iowa State and Houston occupying the regions with the weakest No. 1 seeds (Michigan and Florida). Add No. 4 seed Kansas to the mix from the East region, and you have four legitimate title contenders, with three of the top eight.
The Big Ten, however, is not too far behind. Michigan leads the way as the conference's No. 1 seed, and the Big Ten arguably has more depth than the Big 12 in terms of contenders. No. 2 seed Purdue, No. 3 seed Michigan State, and No. 3 seed Illinois provide the conference with four of the top 12 teams in the country. Add in No. 4 seed Nebraska and No. 5 seed Wisconsin (who can beat anybody), and the Big Ten deserves to be considered right up there with the Big 12.
The ACC is a more interesting case. The conference hovers around 20% odds to win it all, but in reality, betting on the ACC to win it all is essentially picking Duke vs. the field. No. 3 seed Virginia has an outside chance to make some noise, but the ACC doesn't have any teams outside of those two with a real shot at winning a title.
The SEC could be undervalued here. No. 1 seed Florida definitely has a chance to repeat, while No. 4 seeds Alabama and Arkansas, and No. 5 seed Vanderbilt are all intriguing teams with enough talent (especially guard play) to make interesting runs. However, Alabama, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt feel more like teams that can get to the Final Four if things go their way, but that won't actually win it all in a year with so many dominant teams at the top of the board.
Another team near the top is No. 2 seed UConn. The Huskies got a rough draw in getting paired with No. 1 overall seed Duke, but still have the experience and championship pedigree to win it all. The Big East remains a long-shot conference to cut down the nets, though, because UConn and St. John's are both in the same region, while Villanova has next to no chance to win it all.
If you're really feeling adventurous, the odds for any other conference to win the title (essentially a double-digit seed or one of No. 3 seed Gonzaga, No. 7 seed Saint Mary's, or No. 9 seeds Utah State and Saint Louis) are close to the odds for a Big East team to take home the championship.
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