List of Current Odds to Win The 2010 NCAA Tournament Can Be Found Below!

(2010 NCAA Tournament Printable Brackets; PDF – GIF) On Tuesday night, 65 teams vie for college basketball’s biggest prize in the greatest tournament in all of sports. The NCAA Tournament will kick off with the play-in game between the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions and the Winthrop Eagles, and wrap up on Monday April 5th with the National Championship Game between the two teams that are left standing when the madness of March is complete.

The three leading favorites to win this tournament should come as no surprise to anyone. The Syracuse Orange (+800 at Oddsmaker), Kentucky Wildcats (+400 at Oddsmaker), and Kansas Jayhawks (+200 at Oddsmaker) are the three teams of choice. Some combination of those three teams were all supplanted in the AP’s Top 5 for the better part of the last two months, and even though the Orange bowed out of the Big East Tournament early, they are absolutely still deserving of their spot on the bracket and their status as a favorite to win the whole enchilada.

The fourth #1 seed, the Duke Blue Devils and the four #2 seeds all chime in somewhere between +600 and +800 to round out the overwhelming favorites to win the dance at Oddsmaker.

Looking for some nice prices on underdogs? Try to see if the teams that you’re looking at meet this generic eye test before placing a bet.

#1: Does the team have a true scorer that can take over the game?
#2: Does the team have a relatively favorable draw in the first weekend of the tournament?
#3: Is the team playing anywhere near home?
#4: Is the team going to essentially be playing a road game at any point against a team with home court advantage?
#5: Is there another team that fits this bill in their bracket?

There are a few teams that meet this mold that you’ll be able to get some decent prices on along the way.

Take the #12 Cornell Big Red for example (+75000 at Oddsmaker). The Ivy League champs are proven to be able to stick with anyone in the country (especially after nearly winning in Allen Fieldhouse earlier this year), and they have a big time scoring machine in F Ryan Wittman (17.5 PPG). Their draw isn’t the easiest in the world, but the way that Temple and Wisconsin both play, Wittman can catch some fire and knock out either team. Yes, at that point, #1 Kentucky probably awaits, but by then, you’ve got +75000 on a team that you can just scalp out of every step of the way in the future.

The odds aren’t quite as long on the #5 Texas A&M Aggies (+6000 at Oddsmaker), but this team has a schedule that could arguably leave it in the Final Four. Yes, Utah State is a difficult first game and could go against our rule of thumb about going against teams with home court advantage, but if the Aggies can dispose of USU, there could be some really, really clear sailing to the Elite Eight. Purdue is the weakest #4 seed in the field, and the Boilers may be primed to be upset by #13 Siena. Duke may get a heck of a challenge from the Cal/Louisville winner, and as a #5, if there’s a #1 seed that you want to face in this tournament, Coach K’s club is the one. A&M will also be playing just up the road in Houston, which could provide a major boost to a team which has the ability to catch fire in a hurry.

Lastly, stay away from all of these glitzy odds on teams like the #16 Lehigh Mountain Hawks (+2500000 at Oddsmaker) and the sorts. There are only probably 20 teams that legitimately have a chance of winning the National Championship, and none of the teams with seven digit odds are amongst them. It may be nice to laugh and say that you’ve got a $10 ticket that can turn into 2.5 million bucks, but you seriously have a better chance of buying ten quick picks for your local lottery than you do of one of these teams at these odds winning one game, let alone six of them against the elite teams in the nation.

Current Odds to win the 2010 NCAA Tournament @ Oddsmaker (as of 2/26/10):
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Kansas +200
Kentucky +400
Duke +600
Syracuse +800
Ohio State +600
West Virginia +800
Villanova +800
Kansas State +800
Georgetown +1000
New Mexico +3000
Pittsburgh +4000
Baylor +2000
Maryland +3000
Wisconsin +2000
Vanderbilt +5000
Purdue +5000
Temple +6000
Butler +7500
Texas A&M +6000
Tennessee +7500
Marquette +6000
Xavier +6000
Notre Dame +5000
Oklahoma State +6000
Clemson +10000
BYU +5000
Richmond +20000
UNLV +30000
Texas +4000
Gonzaga +15000
California +15000
Northern Iowa +50000
Wake Forest +10000
Florida State +7500
Louisville +5000
Georgia Tech +25000
Missouri +6000
Florida +15000
St. Mary’s +30000
San Diego State +75000
Washington +15000
Minnesota +10000
Old Dominion +15000
New Mexico State +75000
Cornell +75000
Utah State +30000
UTEP +50000
Houston +75000
Wofford +150000
Siena +75000
Murray State +300000
Ohio +150000
Montana +300000
Oakland +1500000
San Houston State +150000
UC Santa Barbara +300000
Morgan State +2500000
North Texas +1500000
Robert Morris +1500000
Lehigh +2500000
East Tennessee State +2500000
Vermont +1500000
Arkansas Pine-Bluff +2500000
Winthrop +2500000

The brackets have been released for March Madness, and there are already teams lined up out the door that want to take their swipes at the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee for leaving them out of the field of 65. All of these teams have one thing in common, though. They all lost when it really counted and all had holes their resume. Here’s our March Madness edition of our Weekly Rap Sheet.

Rap Sheet Picture of the Week

Connecticut Huskies HC Jim Calhoun while watching his team crash out of the Big East Tournament to St. John’s.

It feels like this is a weekly ordeal, but at last, it’s finally over with. The 2009-10 Connecticut Huskies are no more. Poor HC Jim Calhoun had to sit there and watch his team blow it out its you know what against the Johnnies on Wednesday at the Big East Tournament. UConn turned the ball over 19 times in defeat. G Kemba Walker shot just 4/17 from the field, but at least it looked like he was trying out there. G Jerome Dyson, on the other hand, looked like he quit on his team. The superstar turned the ball over nine times and was just never mentally in the game. With their season hanging in the balance, the Huskies came up flat against a bad team and lost 73-51 to fall completely out of consideration for the NCAA Tournament.

Not only are we going to take a swipe at the Rhode Island Rams, but we’re going to go after all four bubble teams in the Atlantic 10 as well. None… Not one of you put together enough of a resume to even be considered one of the last four teams left home from the dance. URI looked alright until getting smashed to bits 57-44 by Temple. Even a close loss might’ve made the Rams look like a potential NCAA Tournament team. As for the Charlotte 49ers, Dayton Fliers, and St. Louis Billikens… C’mon guys. You really didn’t think you had a chance of reaching the big dance when you didn’t even qualify for your league semifinals, did you? Charlotte, we’re especially pointing the finger at you. You screwed up by losing to 12-20 Massachusetts on your home court to end your season with losses in seven of your L/8 games.

Yeah, Mississippi State Bulldogs, I hear you moaning as well, especially after you were just a matter of a few tenths of a second from winning the SEC. You’ve got a heck of a lot better gripe about going to the dance after playing the Cats tough, and your win over Florida in the SEC Tournament paired with two wins over Ole Miss should’ve been good enough to go dancing, right? Sorry… Tournament teams don’t lose to Rider on opening night at home by two touchdowns. You should’ve known that your season was over right then and there.

The Virginia Tech Hokies has a nice little gripe, right? After all, 23 wins, ten of which came in the ACC should’ve been good enough to get into the NCAA Tournament, right? Wrong. Play somebody. Brown, UNC-Greensboro, Campbell, Delaware, Iowa, Georgia, VMI, Penn State, Charleston Southern, Maryland-Baltimore County, Longwood, Seton Hall, and North Carolina Central. Those were your out of conference wins. Give me a break. Don’t fall flat on your face against Miami in your first ACC Tournament game, and you’re dancing. For now, don’t complain.

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Let’s get one thing straight before I get started with this little rant: Mississippi State and Minnesota don’t deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament in they don’t win their respective conferences on Sunday. But neither do Illinois, Florida, Rhode Island, Seton Hall, or any other teams that are sitting on this proverbial “bubble” that we have come to know and love.

Come to think of it, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Wake Forest, and probably about 12 other teams shouldn’t get the right to play for the National Championship either.

And you want to expand this field to 96 teams next year???

Regardless of whether I like it or not, the Golden Gophers and Bulldogs are both going to get to win their way onto the dance floor the old fashioned way: by winning their conference tournaments.

These two teams should both take lessons from the teams before them. Washington was considered a bubble team until it removed all doubt by winning the Pac-10. San Diego State could say the same thing with the Mountain West.

The other lesson that Mississippi State and Minnesota should take into consideration: Don’t complain if you don’t get into the field.

The Golden Gophers have some unsightly losses on their resume, including a 28-point defeat to Michigan which capped a season sweep for the Wolverines over Minnesota, a loss at Northwestern, and ‘L’s to Portland and Miami. Winning more than one legitimate road game (@ Illinois) in conference would’ve helped quite a bit, too.

Hey Mississippi State, why the heck are you losing at home to Rider? It doesn’t matter that that loss came on the first night of the regular season. It’s Rider! Tournament teams don’t lose to Western Kentucky or to Arkansas, Alabama, or Auburn in conference play. The only road wins in SEC play came at Ole Miss, LSU, and South Carolina.

Don’t get me wrong… Anyone that wins their conference tournament is deserving of a spot in the field of 65. It’s all of these bubble teams that annoy the heck out of me.

I’ll admit this much: I smirked just a bit when Utah State and UTEP both lost their conference finals, which is probably going to take a bid away from one of these teams that doesn’t deserve to go dancing.

And once again, I’d love nothing more than to see the Dawgs and Gophers take care of business, pull upsets in their conference finals, and take automatic bids to the dance. Then there will be two more teams deserving of their tickets to the NCAA Tournament, while more teams will be left at home, complaining that the system doesn’t work and that there should be more teams allowed in the NCAA Tournament.

But don’t worry, all of you 21-10 teams. When the field expands to 96 teams, you’ll all be in the tournament. Then all we’ll have complaining is all of the 18-14 teams why they’re not allowed to play for college basketball’s biggest prize.