NCAA Bracket 2017: Latest Bracketology and Early Championship Odds

The men's college basketball bracket will be revealed on Sunday, March 12 at 5:30 p.m. on CBS, but predictions for what that field will look like are being updated in real time in the days leading up to the Selection Sunday show.

Furthermore, sportsbooks are updating their odds as teams progress (or get knocked out) of their conference tournaments.

Here's a look at three bracket predictions from Bleacher Report, ESPN and CBS Sports. Then, we'll take a look at the 11 teams who are being given 20/1 or better odds to win the NCAA tournament.

Bracketology

Kerry Miller (Bleacher Report)

No. 1 Seeds	Villanova	North Carolina	Gonzaga	Kansas
First Four In	Vanderbilt	Providence	Rhode Island	Kansas State
Last Four Out	Illinois State	TCU	Monmouth	Iowa

Miller's two most notable picks here are out of the same state. He has Kansas on the top line (for now) despite its loss to unranked TCU in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals, and he has Kansas State moving into the tournament field with its win over Baylor.

However, Miller wrote that the Jayhawks are ranked as the fourth No. 1 seed on his line, meaning that if another team rises to power this week, Kansas would be the first team knocked off.

Speaking of the Horned Frogs, they moved into the NCAA tournament discussion with that big win over the Jayhawks. If they beat Iowa State on Friday, they could perhaps move onto the "First Four In" line.

Lastly, Illinois State makes Miller's field. ISU will be the cause of much debate in the selection committee room (if it hasn't already) since it went 27-6 (17-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play) but played a weak non-conference schedule and got crushed in the title game, 71-51, to Wichita State.

The committee will have to weigh the Redbirds' resume with some schools from major conferences who played a tougher schedule but finished in the middle of their league.

Joe Lunardi (ESPN)

No. 1 Seeds	Villanova	Kansas	North Carolina	Gonzaga
First Four In	USC	Syracuse	Wake Forest	Kansas State
Last Four Out	Illinois State	Rhode Island	Houston	Cal

Like Miller (and Jerry Palm below), Lunardi is sticking with Kansas on the top line. Villanova, UNC and Gonzaga seem like locks at this point, especially the Zags, who won the WCC title and finished pre-NCAA tournament play with a 32-1 record.

Most notably, Lunardi made a swap after K-State's big win:

Like Miller, Illinois State is also the very first team out of Lunardi's bracket. He also has Cal on the "Last Four Out" line. The Golden Bears need a win against Oregon on Friday to have a chance at making the tournament. A loss will send them to the NIT.

Lunardi also updated his bubble on Thursday:

The big takeaway there: Xavier, which was teetering on the wrong edge of the bubble fence, fell on the right side of it with its big win over Butler in the Big East tournament. That will likely be good enough to land the Musketeers a First Four game at the absolute worst.

Jerry Palm (CBS)

No. 1 Seeds	Villanova	Kansas	North Carolina	Gonzaga
First Four In	Wake Forest	Kansas State	Cal	Rhode Island
Last Four Out	Iowa	Illinois	Vanderbilt	Illinois State

Palm is more bullish on Cal and Rhode Island than Miller and Lunardi, putting them as his last team in the tournament field.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt, which made the tournament in Miller and Lunardi's brackets, is sitting as one of the first four teams out alongside Big Ten tournament losers Iowa and Illinois and the aforementioned Illinois State Redbirds.

Iowa and Illinois are almost certainly heading to the NIT after being blown out in the conference tourney, but Vanderbilt still has a chance to improve its stock as the Commodores are facing Florida in the SEC quarterfinal round on Thursday.

Championship Odds

Team	Odds
North Carolina	6/1
Villanova	7/1
UCLA	7/1
Kansas	8/1
Gonzaga	9/1
Duke	10/1
Kentucky	10/1
Oregon	12/1
Louisville	14/1
Arizona	14/1
West Virginia	20/1

Odds information per BetOnline (h/t OddsShark)

One of those teams is not like the other in the top five, as UCLA, which isn't being talked about as a No. 1 seed (that would change with a Pac-12 tournament win), is a 7/1 favorite to win the national championship, giving the Bruins the second-best odds in the entire nation.

On the bottom half of the odds table, take West Virginia at 20/1 if you're feeling lucky. The Mountaineers have a chance to improve their seeding if they win the Big 12 tournament, which they are suddenly favored to do after Kansas' early exit. A better seed means a better draw, obviously, meaning these 20/1 odds could be a great bargain.