March Madness Betting: Kansas Is the Heavy Favorite on the South Odds

The Kansas Jayhawks (30-4) are the top seed in the entire 2016 NCAA tournament, so it is no surprise to see them as the biggest favorites to win their respective region in the Big Dance.

The Big 12 champion Jayhawks are plus-130 chalk (bet $100 to win $130) on the odds to win the South Region at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark and bring a 14-game winning streak into their first-round matchup with the 16th-seeded Austin Peay Governors (18-17), who pulled off four straight upsets en route to winning the Ohio Valley tournament.

Kansas could face a challenge in the second round against the ninth-seeded Connecticut Huskies (24-10), who have been known to excel in this role, winning the national championship in 2014 as a No. 7 in the East.

The Huskies are one of the dark horses to win the South at plus-2,500, but they are consensus three-point favorites to win their first-round game versus the eighth-seeded Colorado Buffaloes (22-11). UConn is getting hot at the right time again, winning the American tournament as a No. 6 seed.

The second-seeded Villanova Wildcats (29-5) won the Big East regular-season title but fell to the Seton Hall Pirates in the conference championship game, dropping them from earning a potential No. 1 seed in another region of the NCAA tournament bracket.

The Wildcats are the plus-275 second choice to win the South and were upset as the East’s top seed in the round of 32 a year ago. They were ranked as the No. 1 team in the country for three weeks earlier this season and may have an easier road to get to the Elite Eight than the Jayhawks.

The third-seeded Miami Hurricanes (25-7) and fifth-seeded Maryland Terrapins (25-8) are both plus-700 to win the South ahead of the fourth-seeded California Golden Bears (23-10) at plus-1,000.

The Terrapins and Golden Bears seem destined to meet in a second-round matchup, with the winner of that game serving as another legit threat to Kansas in the Sweet 16.

The Hurricanes would not meet Villanova until the Sweet 16 but may be tested by the sixth-seeded Arizona Wildcats (25-8) in the second round. Arizona is plus-1,100 to win the South along with the seventh-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes (21-10).