March Madness
Photo: ncaa.com

All professional sports postseasons are a tournament of sorts, but there’s nothing like that quite captures the excitement and “do or die” feel quite like finding the best NCAA Basketball Vegas Odds.

A 64 team tournament spread out over three weeks determines the national champion, and also provides bettors plenty of gambling opportunities. When you consider the billions of dollars staked between office bracket contests and wagering on the actual games it’s not hard to see why March Madness is the second most bet event annually in the U.S outside of the Super Bowl. 

So the question is, “how do I win betting on the college basketball tournament?” This strategy guide will give you a great starting point: 

Playing the Seedings 

16 teams make each quadrant in the tournament, so the first games feature the #16 vs. the #1 seed, #15 vs. #2, #14 vs. #3, and so on. In 2018 the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) become the first #16 seed to ever beat a #1 – and they did it pretty easily by the score of 74-54. 

The win by UMBC pushed the record of the #16 to 1-143 in NCAA Tournament history. Only 20 #1 seeds have ever been eliminated even in the round of 32, but even though the 2021 title game featured #1 Gonzaga vs. #1 Baylor, that’s only the eighth time in history two top seeds have met for the championship meaning there is a lot of parity over the three weeks. 

For various reasons the #12 seed has had some success in their meetings with #5 seeds over the years. The #12 has 51 wins against 93 losses, a winning percentage of nearly 36%. #13 seeds by comparison are just 29-111 (20.71%) but that’s still not a horrible percentage for a game that is supposed to be a mismatch on paper. 

Know the Locations 

What makes the NCAA Tournament great is that games are held at neutral sites, meaning you’ll see apparel of many different schools in the crowd over the course of the day. Sometimes the predetermined locations really favor a team though,especially the higher seeds. 

In 2005 for example the Illinois Fighting Illini played the Round of 64 and 32 games in Indianapolis IN (2 hours from the Illinois campus), Sweet 16 and Elite 8 at Rosemont, IL (in-state), and the Final 4 in St. Louis, MO (2.5 hour drive). Illinois had a noticeable home court advantage all through the tournament even though they lost in the championship game. Maryland has played in nearby Washington D.C, and the University of Pittsburgh has played in Pittsburgh as just a couple more examples. 

Who Has Momentum?

Many times it’s teams that have had great performances all season that advance deep into the tournament, but it’s also possible for teams to ‘get hot’ in March. Look no further than the 2020/21 UCLA Bruins as an example. This is a team that had to play Michigan State in the First Four but then went on a run and made it all the way to the Final Four before losing on a last second 30-foot shot in OT against #1 seed Gonzaga. 

Look for teams that have been hot over the past few weeks of the regular season and especially in their conference tournaments. Momentum and chemistry is a great spark in tournament play.