Despite coming up short in the Big Ten Tournament, the Michigan Wolverines still earned a 1-seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Dusty May and his team had a historic season in the regular season, winning 29 games, going 10-0 in true road games, and winning the Big Ten regular-season championship by four games.
The Wolverines were so good, in fact, that if you only counted double-digit wins as an actual win, they still would have won the Big Ten championship outright.
Now heading into March Madness, the oddsmakers view the Wolverines as one of the most likely teams to cut down the nets on the first Monday in April. Per the betting experts at FanDuel, Michigan has +390 odds — the third-best — to win it all. The only teams ahead are Arizona (+340) and Duke (+380).
Other teams near Michigan in the odds include Florida (+800), Houston (+1,300) and Iowa State (+1,700). Other Big Ten teams you may be curious about include Illinois (+2,000), Purdue (+2,700), Michigan State (+6,000) and Wisconsin (+12,500).
There are also odds for Michigan to make the National Championship Game. The Wolverines are at +195 in that category, with Duke and Arizona both slightly ahead with +170 odds. To make the Final Four, Michigan is at -120, right behind Arizona (-140) and Duke (-130) once again.
Interestingly enough, there’s also a category to place wagers on teams to not make the Final Four. Despite having favorable odds in the last category, Michigan is at -105 to not make the Final Four, with Duke (+102) and Arizona (+112) being the only teams to have plus odds.
My main takeaway here is pretty simple — it’s March, and March is unpredictable. Nobody knows what teams will get upset at what time because it can happen to any team in any round. There have been plenty of 1-seeds that go all the way, and there have also been 1-seeds that lose before the first weekend is over. They call it March Madness for a reason, folks.
So while I very likely won’t be putting down any large wagers on Michigan to make it to the Final Four or to win the whole thing, I also won’t be doing that for any team. I’ll fill out my one bracket like I normally do — yes, I only have one set of picks so I don’t have conflicting rooting interests — and hope that the teams I pick to win end up advancing to the next round.
Your turn. Who do you think will win the NCAA Tournament this year? Let us know in the comments below!