Last year, the Baylor Bears captured their first NCAA men’s basketball championship, and they did it by handing No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga its first loss of the season.
Will the Bears become the second team in more than a quarter century to win back-to-back titles? If you believe the college basketball national championship odds market, the answer to that question is: Perhaps.
According to WynnBet, Baylor — which was elevated to No. 1 in this week’s Associated Press poll — is currently the fourth choice to become the first repeat champion since Florida in 2006-07. One of the contenders the Bears currently trail on the NCAA basketball championship odds board: the team they took down in last year’s title game.
With the college basketball season heating up as the focus fully shifts to conference play after the holidays, Props.com breaks down the current odds and action to win the 2021-22 national championship.
| Gonzaga | +500 |
| Duke | +800 |
| Purdue | +800 |
| Baylor | +1200 |
| Kansas | +1200 |
| UCLA | +1400 |
| Arizona | +1600 |
| Villanova | +1800 |
| Alabama | +2000 |
| Texas | +2000 |
| Kentucky | +2000 |
| Michigan | +2000 |
| Houston | +2200 |
| Illinois | +2500 |
| Ohio State | +2500 |
| Michigan State | +3000 |
Odds via DraftKings and updated as of 6 p.m. EST on Dec. 15.
Action Heats Up On Purdue, Arizona
The AP No. 1 ranking has changed hands three times in recent weeks, moving from Gonzaga (currently 8-2) to Duke (7-1) to Purdue (9-1), and now Baylor (9-0).
Matt Lindeman, senior lead trader at WynnBet, said this game of leap frog has resulted in some intriguing odds movements. The biggest odds drop involved a team from the Big Ten that preceded Baylor at the top of the rankings before recently suffering a last-second upset loss.
“Purdue has been our biggest mover of the teams in the top five,” Lindeman said. “The Boilermakers opened the season at +2,500, and quickly dropped down to +500 after their impressive start. They’re now sitting at +800 after taking a bad loss at Rutgers.”
Another school attracting a lot of attention on the college basketball futures odds board: Arizona. The Wildcats, who are looking to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four seasons, are undefeated at 9-0 and up to No. 8 in the AP poll.
“Other than Purdue, Arizona has been the biggest mover,” Lindeman said. “We had the Wildcats as high as +7,500 before the season, but they are now down to +1,200 under new coach Tommy Lloyd.”
Lloyd’s squad not only leads the nation in scoring offense (90.7 points per game), but it has already knocked off a pair of Big Ten powers (Michigan on a neutral court, Illinois on the road).
Faith In The Zags
Despite Arizona’s early success and pedigree as a onetime perennial Pac-12 powerhouse, it lags behind No. 4 UCLA (+1,400) and No. 5 Gonzaga — two squads that matched up in last year’s Final Four — in terms of West Coast prestige.
The Zags were the preseason No. 1 before recently falling to Duke (84-81) and Alabama (92-81) in the span of eight days. Prior to those losses, Gonzaga handed UCLA (9-1) its only setback to date, 83-63.
Despite failing to complete their perfect season in 2020-21 — and despite those two non-conference defeats — the Bulldogs remain popular with WynnBet’s customers who have placed national championship futures wagers.
“Gonzaga has taken the most handle and tickets thus far,” Lindeman said. “We offered a very attractive price on the Zags [+600] coming off their loss [to Baylor in last year’s NCAA title game], and our players did not hesitate to jump in.”
Rams Making A Charge
As is the case every season (in every sport), bettors like to roll the dice with pricey long shots. That’s certainly been the case with college basketball national championship action at Wynn Bet, where one particular mid-major squad far down the betting odds board has created some interesting liability concerns.
“One mid-major that has seen quite a bit of interest, in both the national championship and Final Four markets, is Colorado State,” Lindeman said.
The Rams, who are 10-0 and entered the Top 25 this week at No. 23, have seen their odds at WynnBet shrink from +50,000 (500/1) in the preseason to +10,000 (100/1).
“We’ll be in big trouble if the Rams are able to earn an [NCAA tourney] bid and get hot in March,” Lindeman said. “We’ve also seen some sharp money on BYU, Nevada, and Washington State to make the Final Four.”
Does WynnBet have a preference as to which team cuts down the nets in New Orleans come April 4?
“It’s hard to say who we’ll need this early,” Lindeman said. “We’re lopsided on the favorites right now, but bettors generally lose interest in those teams as their odds get shorter.
We’ll try to decide who we want to protect as the tournament gets closer and make sure we don’t offer favorable pricing on those teams.”