2017 NCAA Tournament Odds: March Madness Sweet Sixteen Betting Lines, Trends

The last two Division I men's basketball national champions were knocked out in the second round of the 2017 NCAA tournament this past weekend, giving some sleepers an excellent opportunity to sneak into the Final Four as big betting underdogs.

With both the top-seeded Villanova Wildcats and second-seeded Duke Blue Devils getting upset in the East Region, either the third-seeded Baylor Bears (27-7) or the seventh-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks (24-10) and the fourth-seeded Florida Gators (26-8) or the eighth-seeded Wisconsin Badgers (27-9) will advance to the Elite Eight this coming weekend.

Of that group, the Gamecocks have overcome the largest odds in getting to the Sweet 16, moving from +20000 (bet $100 to win $20,000) to +5000 to win the national title at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark after ousting Duke 88-81 on Sunday.

South Carolina closed as a 6.5-point underdog and is a 3.5-point underdog versus Baylor in the early East Region semifinal game on Friday. Later, Florida is two-point chalk against a Wisconsin team that beat Villanova 65-62 as a 5.5-point underdog on Saturday. The Gators are the favorites to get to the Final Four from the East and +1200 on the NCAA tournament odds.

The other three regions have mostly stayed true to form outside of a few upsets in the first two rounds, which prevented the No. 2 seed in the Midwest (the Louisville Cardinals) and the No. 3 seed in the West (the Florida State Seminoles) from making the Sweet 16.

Ironically, each of them hails from the traditionally strong ACC, which has only one school left standing in the top-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels (29-7) from the South.

The Tar Heels have arguably the toughest road of any team remaining in the field not from the East. North Carolina takes on the fourth-seeded Butler Bulldogs (25-8), who defeated Villanova twice during the regular season. If Carolina wins, it would have to beat the winner between the second-seeded Kentucky Wildcats (31-5) and third-seeded UCLA Bruins (31-4) to get back to the Final Four for the second year in a row.

If the Tar Heels win the South, they could face the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks (30-4) from the Midwest in the national semifinals. North Carolina is a 7.5-point favorite against Butler on Friday and the +500 second choice to win the championship behind Kansas (+475).