March Madness Odds: Gonzaga Remains Big Fave For 2021 Championship

We’ve just entered the best part of the NCAA basketball season – conference play – and the Gonzaga Bulldogs remain head and shoulders above all others when it comes to 2021 March Madness odds.

The best basketball betting sites have Gonzaga as the +300 favorite in NCAA championship odds, dropping from +450 a few weeks ago.

Bettors and fans were robbed of getting to watch a highly anticipated Gonzaga-Baylor matchup in December due to COVID-19 but Gonzaga has laid out-of-conference beatdowns on the Iowa Hawkeyes, West Virginia Mountaineers and Virginia Cavaliers. Five of the Bulldogs’ 14 wins this season have come against ranked teams, three of them in the top 10.

The Baylor Bears, who throttled the sixth-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini 82-69 earlier this season, are second on the oddsboard behind Gonzaga at +550. Baylor just took down Texas Tech on the Red Raiders’ home floor and now has a date with Kansas (+2500) at home. Baylor will also have a high-profile matchup with the Texas Longhorns (+2000) on February 2. The Longhorns have risen in the ranks with big wins over UNC, Kansas and West Virginia while falling to Texas Tech, making that February matchup must-see TV.

The Villanova Wildcats, who opened the season as the betting favorite in NCAA championship odds and beat Texas earlier this season, now have +1200 odds. 

There’s still time to place an NCAA futures bet with the latest college basketball odds. Be sure to read up on how to bet on college basketball and how to bet on games with no fans in attendance. These will be helpful when making your wager.

Now, here are the latest March Madness odds for the top 25 teams on the board to win the 2021 NCAA basketball national championship:

Who will win the 2021 March Madness Tournament?

Odds as of January 18 at BetOnline

Why Gonzaga Is The 2021 March Madness Odds Favorite

The Gonzaga Bulldogs were always going to remain a top-five team no matter what happened in the opening few weeks of college hoops but if you take down four top 25-ranked teams like Kansas, West Virginia, Iowa and Virginia, oddsmakers are going to take notice.

The Bulldogs breathed a sigh of relief when superstar freshman Jalen Suggs returned from injury after having to leave the game vs West Virginia. Suggs has been as good as advertised since he arrived at Gonzaga, averaging 13.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists. He shined in a victory over Iowa by netting a team-high 27 points, three shy of the game-high 30 that Wooden Award hopeful Luka Garza poured in for the Hawkeyes.

Gonzaga’s offense was never in question, but in putting up 87 or more points on five teams expected to go far in the March Madness tournament, dominance is the only word that comes to mind. To re-emphasize this, the Bulldogs dropped 98 points on a Virginia team that’s known for its defense and was holding opponents to 61.9 points per game going into that contest. Offensively, they have no weakness.

At this point, you know Gonzaga is likely going to end up with a No. 1 seed in the March Madness tournament so grabbing the Bulldogs at +300 might make sense if you can hold on to a futures ticket until March.

Understanding the Odds to Win the NCAA Tournament

At any college basketball sportsbook, you’ll see NCAA basketball lines and tournament odds laid out like this:

Unlike a straight-up bet where there is a clear favorite represented by the minus sign (-), the team with the lowest odds would be the front-runner. In this case, it’s Villanova and the rest are underdogs even though each team has a plus sign (+) prefacing their odds.

If you were to lay down $100 on the Wildcats, you’d get a payout of $800 – your original money is returned coupled with your winnings of $700.

To see how much you’d win on the futures odds, check out our Odds Calculator. It’ll show you what your payout would be based on the odds and amount wagered.

What is a Futures Bet for College Basketball?

Betting on college basketball lines and a school’s odds to win March Madness is a type of futures bet. This is a bet you can make weeks or even months in advance of a big event. Oddsmakers set the NCAA basketball odds early and look at a team’s past performance, injuries and coaching/roster moves.

The lines are not set in stone and will move as the regular season progresses. If you see odds you like, take them as soon as you can.