Kentucky, Duke Headline Way-Too-Early Odds for Next Year

• Odds for the 2024 NCAA Men’s Championship have come out, featuring Kentucky as the +1100 sole favorite.
• The defending champion UConn Huskies come in tied for second place at +1200 odds.
• With many players yet to declare for the NBA draft, incoming recruiting class is the biggest determinant of a team’s odds.

GLENDALE, Ariz. – On Monday, the UConn Huskies pulled off an impressive run through March Madness to emerge victorious. Now with the tournament over, odds for 2024’s March Madness have come out with some intriguing teams atop.

With just under three weeks left to go before the top players have to declare for the NBA draft, much of the odds have yet to shake out and no teams feature odds shorter than +1100. With this being the case, it is prime time to pick up big value for teams on legal betting sites.

Favorites For The 2024 NCAA Men’s Championship

• Kentucky +1100
• Duke +1200
• UConn +1200
• Purdue +1200
• Kansas +1600

Right off the bat, most of the teams here should present pretty good values, especially because of the strength of their returning roster and/or their exciting new recruiting classes.

This is the case for Kentucky, who find themselves at the top of the odds with their top ranked recruitment class featuring four five-star players. While Kentucky is most likely slated to lose their pair of freshman standouts Cason Wallace and Chris Livingston, they have plenty of prospects to reload with the top small forward, combo guard, and center in the class.

Duke is another team that will be facing heavy casualties to the draft but have an immensely talented recruiting class with a nation-leading five five-star commits. However, Duke will be losing four top 30 NBA prospects in Dariq Whitehead, Kyle Filipowski, Dereck Lively II, and Tyrese Proctor.

While most of their talent is replaceable, it is also worrisome that the team will have so much turnover from last year, unable replicate the value from four star players.

A Case For UCONN?

Defending champion UConn also comes in at +1200 odds, and they have a very interesting path to go back-to-back. If they did, they would be the first team to do so since the 2006-2007 Florida Gators.

UConn also presents great value partly because they still boast a top four recruiting class composed of one five-star, three four-stars, and one three-star player. More importantly though, UConn will only be losing Jordan Hawkins and possibly Donovan Clingan while keeping Adama Sanogo, their best player this year.

At +1200 odds on legal college basketball sportsbooks, it is possible that the reigning champs will bring back everyone but Hawkins before NBA Draft announcements.

Purdue and Kansas round out the top five but their claims to win it all are not as strong. Kansas will be losing two of their best starters and boast a strong but not standout recruiting class.

Purdue on the other hand suffered the biggest upset in the tournament. While they are slated to bring back the whole team, their recruiting class is made up of just one four-star player.

They certainly have the but inconsistent under coach Matt Painter has had them failing to get past the Elite Eight.