NCAA tournament Cinderella stories have come to life as the first weekend of March Madness provided non-stop basketball drama. Barring some all-time Cinderella runs, however, we pretty much know that this year’s Final Four will be mostly comprised of traditionally elite programs. Below are Final Four odds from top legal sportsbooks.
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Final 4 odds
Here are odds to make the Final Four. Compare Final 4 odds from the sportsbooks below and click to bet now.
Odds to win Final Four: The elite
Most of the teams at the top of Final Four odds boards are the usual suspects when discussing college basketball’s top programs. For instance, here were the odds to win the college basketball National Title from April of last year.
- Gonzaga +550
- Baylor +850
- UCLA +1200
- Michigan +1400
- Duke +1500
- Kansas +1800
- Kentucky +1800
- Florida State +1800
- Illinois +2000
From that list, only Michigan and Florida State have trailed off when you look at current boards. And we can remove Baylor, Kentucky and Illinois as they were bumped this past weekend.
Recent history
Picking all chalk for your Final Four can actually be a sound strategy. At least one team that is a 1 seed almost always reaches the National semi-final round. Just once in the past 10 tournaments has a No. 1 seed NOT made the Final Four (2011), and in 2008 all four No. 1 seeds made it to the second to last round.
That said, more and more Cinderallas have been making a run all the way to the final weekend in recent years. Just last year 11 seed UCLA crashed the party.
Another 11 seed, Loyola-Chicago, made it to the Final 4 in 2018. And 10 seed Syracuse made it in 2016. Here is a look at the last 10 NCAA men’s basketball tournaments played, with the teams that made each year’s Final Four along with their seeding.
- 2021: 1 Baylor, 1 Gonzaga, 2 Houston, 11 UCLA
- 2019: 1 Virginia, 2 Michigan State, 3 Texas Tech, 5 Auburn
- 2018: 1 Villanova, 1 Kansas, 3 Michigan, 11 Loyola-Chicago
- 2017: 1 North Carolina, 1 Gonzaga, 3 Oregon, 7 South Carolina
- 2016: 2 Villanova, 1 North Carolina, 2 Oklahoma, 10 Syracuse
- 2015: 1 Duke, 1 Kentucky, 1 Wisconsin, 7 Michigan State
- 2014: 7 UConn, 1 Florida, 2 Wisconsin, 8 Kentucky
- 2013: 1 Louisville, 4 Syracuse, 4 Michigan, 9 Wichita State
- 2012: 1 Kentucky, 2 Kansas, 2 Ohio State, 4 Louisville
- 2011: 3 UConn, 4 Kentucky, 8 Butler, 11 VCU
