March Madness Odds: Jayhawks, Tar Heels Remain NCAA Tournament Betting Favorites

After both schools breezed through the first two rounds of the 2016 NCAA tournament with a pair of double-digit wins, the Big 12’s Kansas Jayhawks (32-4) and ACC’s North Carolina Tar Heels (30-6) sit atop the futures betting board to cut down the nets on April 4 at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

The Jayhawks entered the Big Dance as the +500 second choice (bet $100 to win $500) to win it all behind the Big Ten’s Michigan State Spartans (+475), who were ousted by the 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 90-81 as the No. 2 seed in the first round for one of the biggest upsets in tournament history.

Kansas is now +350 with North Carolina (+425) right behind at the sportsbooks. The Tar Heels appear to have the easiest path to the Final Four of all the top seeds in the East Region because the second, third and fourth seeds all lost before the Sweet 16.

The East looked to be the toughest part of the bracket heading into the tournament, but currently the South and West are almost equally difficult for the Jayhawks and the Pac-12’s Oregon Ducks (30-6), respectively.

The fifth-seeded Indiana Hoosiers (27-7) take on North Carolina next, with the winner meeting either the sixth-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish (23-11) or the seventh-seeded Wisconsin Badgers (22-12) in the Elite Eight.

The Hoosiers are +2000 to win the whole thing with the Fighting Irish and Badgers each listed at +3300.

Oregon is +1200 to win the tournament as the top seed in the West and will face the defending national champion Duke Blue Devils (25-10) first before a potential matchup with the second-seeded Oklahoma Sooners (27-7) or the third-seeded Texas A&M Aggies (28-8) in the Elite Eight.

The Sooners have lower odds to win the NCAA tournament than the Ducks at +750, while the Aggies follow Duke (+1800) at +2000.

Kansas also has four of the top five seeds left in its bracket, including the second-seeded Villanova Wildcats (31-5), third-seeded Miami Hurricanes (27-7) and fifth-seeded Maryland Terrapins (27-8).

The Wildcats are tied with Oregon as the fifth choice to win it all at +1200 followed by the Hurricanes and the Terrapins at +2800.

In the Midwest, the ACC’s Virginia Cavaliers (28-7) do not have to worry about a Michigan State team that has knocked them out of the Big Dance the previous two years. The top-seeded Cavaliers are the +575 third choice to win the tournament out of the region ahead of the fourth-seeded Iowa State Cyclones (23-11), 10th-seeded Syracuse Orange (21-13) and 11th-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs (28-7).

Iowa State and Gonzaga are both +2800 to win the Big Dance, followed by Syracuse at +3300.