Your Michigan State Spartans, along with the Villanova Wildcats, are co-favorites to win it all according to the sports books. You know the saying in East Lansing, Michigan: “January, February, Izzo.” Now while Michigan State is dominant in March, the last weekend of the NCAA Tournament is in April, which has been the cruelest month to the Spartans.
Since their most recent national title in 2000, the Michigan State Spartans have been back to Final Four five times (2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2015), and they have only reached the title game in one of those five trips. MSU’s record is 1-5 on the April weekend of the big dance since the glorious night they cut down the nets after beating Florida in 2000.
According to websites that monitor the most prominent sports books, State is backed at +500, the same odds being given to Villanova, the 2016 national champions.
During the NCAA Tournament, online gaming can typically reach its highest levels of the year. Judi online is a very popular online gambling site that offers a sportsbook, but they also feature a casino, slots, lotteries, and poker games.
At Judi, there’s another tournament, somewhat similar to college basketball’s NCAA Tournament, drawing a lot of interest from punters- the UEFA Champions League. As late winter turns to spring, there will be a period where the NCAA Tournament overlaps with Champions League, and thus you have a lot of action at the sports books, both online and in person. Manchester City look like the favorites in the UCL right now, with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and the winner of Real Madrid versus Paris Saint-Germain top contenders as well.
Getting back to the Michigan State Spartans, they opened the season alongside the Duke Blue Devils as co-favorites to claim the title, being backed at +400.
Duke is now tied with the Virginia Cavaliers for third best odds at +600. Virginia has had a lot of issues even reaching the elite 8 lately, so it’s hard to have a lot of faith in the belief they’ll get back to the quarter-final round, let alone keep winning beyond that and claim the title. Michigan State has played a significant role in that, eliminating the Cavs twice when UVA had a top seed, and thus high hopes to win it all.
Your Purdue Boilermakers have the fifth best odds currently, at +750. It almost lines up with where the tournament committee now seeds Purdue, fourth overall, and with the final #1 seed. The Boilermakers, like their conference brethren Michigan State Spartans, are struggling to get a conference title, and a #1 seed, but remain a leading national title contender no less.
Purdue is a team that’s been known to peak in February, but then collapse in March when it matters most. This season they seem to have peaked in January, are having their collapse now in February, so maybe that bodes well for March? The Boilermakers have all the potential in the world, and this is the perfect season for them to finally have a breakthrough that sees them go on a deep run.
One team they obliterated early on this season, the Arizona Wildcats are next in line, tied with the Kansas Jayhawks (the team that eliminated Purdue from the season last year) at +2000.
Rounding out the list of leading national title contenders are a pair of schools from the Queen City- Xavier and Cincinnati at +2500.