The Odds in Vegas: Who to bet and who not to bet

In the spreadsheet below, you will find the odds that Vegas is currently giving the best teams in the country.



As you can plainly tell, Vegas loves the Blue Devils. It makes sense. Duke is the best team in the country by a wide margin. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that this seems like a pretty good bet. With Robbie Hummel's injury knocking Purdue out of the national title picture, Michigan State is really the only team on paper that looks to be talented enough to seriously consider as a national title favorite. And that Michigan State team has health, behavior, and leadership question marks still.

A couple of other teams seem too low to me. Villanova is getting 30:1 odds right now. This is a Wildcat team that reminds me quite a bit of their 2009 Final Four team thanks to their versatility on the perimeter, and with size questions answered -- on the interior as well as the perimeter -- I think Nova has a much better than 30:1 shot at winning the title.

Gonzaga, who should be better this season than they were last season, and Missouri, a team that isn't getting the attention they deserve, are both checking in at 40:1 odds, while Georgetown at 50:1 is well off the pace of fellow Big East members like Syracuse and West Virginia.

As far as teams to stay away from, I am not sure how Washington ended up with equivalent odds to North Carolina, Ohio State, and Kansas, teams I think most would agree will be better than Lorenzo Romar's club. Also, I'm not exactly sure how Georgia and UConn, who are both 75:1 odds according to Vegas, are considered title favorites when compared to Wisconsin, Xavier, Temple, and BYU, all of whom check in at 100:1 odds.

Anyway, we will be keeping an eye on these odds all season long (For writing purposes only, I swear! The only "betting" I've ever done on sports is the money I annually throw away trying to convince myself I can play fantasy football.) and will be sure to update you should anything interesting come along.

This post can also be found to Beyond the Arc.