March Madness Opening Odds: NCAA Tournament Bracket, Betting Lines, Preview

The top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks (30-4) and Virginia Cavaliers (26-7) are two of the biggest betting favorites for their first-round games in the 2016 NCAA tournament bracket.

The Big 12 champion Jayhawks are the No. 1 seed in the South Region and will take on the 16th-seeded Austin Peay Governors (18-17) from the Ohio Valley Conference on Thursday as massive 26-point betting favorites at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

In the Midwest Region, the ACC’s Cavaliers were surprisingly awarded the No. 1 seed over the second-seeded Michigan State Spartans (29-5), who entered the postseason as the second-ranked team in the country and ended up winning the Big Ten tournament.

Virginia is a 24-point favorite against the 16th-seeded Hampton Pirates (21-10), the winners of the MEAC regular-season and tournament titles. The Cavaliers also play the Pirates on Thursday, while the Spartans take on the 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (24-9) of Conference USA as 17.5-point chalk Friday.

Michigan State has the opportunity to prove itself as the better team in a potential Elite Eight matchup with Virginia for a spot in the Final Four. The Spartans have knocked the Cavaliers out of the Big Dance each of the past two years despite being the lower seed each time.

The other top seeds in the 68-team NCAA tournament field won their conference tournaments and will face winners of play-in games in the First Four, with the ACC’s North Carolina Tar Heels (28-6) in the East and the Pac-12’s Oregon Ducks (28-6) in the West.

The Tar Heels will play the winner between the Atlantic Sun’s Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (20-13) and the NEC’s Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (18-14). The Ducks will meet the winner between the Patriot League’s Holy Cross Crusaders (14-19) and the SWAC’s Southern Jaguars (22-12). Both games will take place Friday.

The other three No. 2 seeds in addition to Michigan State are also double-digit favorites versus No. 15 seeds. The Big 12’s Oklahoma Sooners (-13.5) play the WAC’s Cal State-Bakersfield Roadrunners in the West, the Big East’s Villanova Wildcats (-17) meet the Big South’s NC-Asheville Bulldogs in the South, and the Big East’s Xavier Musketeers (-13) square off against the Big Sky’s Weber State Wildcats in the East.