NCAA Tournament 2025 Odds: UConn Among Favorites to Win Third Consecutive Title

• UConn is among the current NCAA Tournament odds favorites for the 2024-25 regular season despite losing Stephon Castle, Cam Spencer, Donovan Clingan, Alex Karaban, and Tristen Newton. The Huskies will seek their third straight National Championship after winning it each of the past two seasons.

• Based on the latest update of ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 list for the 2024-25 season, the Houston Cougars are projected to be the best team in college basketball after returning J’Wan Roberts, Ja’Vier Francis, L.J. Cryer, and Emanuel Sharp. The Kansas Jayhawks are lurking behind at No. 2 as of early May.

• Gonzaga, Iowa State, Marquette, Auburn, and North Carolina are also teams to watch, as they returned most of their starters and key players from the 2023-24 campaign.

The UConn Huskies currently have the second-best 2025 NCAA Tournament odds after winning back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024. They were the first team to accomplish that feat since the Florida Gators in 2006 and 2007.

However, they will lose a handful of their best players to the NBA Draft and graduation, including Stephon Castle, Cam Spencer, Donovan Clingan, Tristen Newton, and Alex Karaban.

Plenty of other talented teams lurk in the shadows, hoping to dethrone the blue-blooded Huskies, including the Houston Cougars, Kansas Jayhawks, Duke Blue Devils, North Carolina Tar Heels, Alabama Crimson Tide, Baylor Bears, and many others. 

Let’s break down the top teams with the best NCAA Tournament odds and analyze which ones have the best chance to take home the hardware in 2025!

NCAA Tournament Odds 

Below, we have listed the 2025 NCAA Tournament odds for the top teams, courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook. These will be updated throughout the season to reflect the best teams and their odds.

NCAA Tournament Predictions - NCAA Favorites to Win 

With the conclusion of the 2023-24 college basketball campaign, we will look ahead at next season and analyze the top teams and their respective odds, as well as make our official NCAA Tournament championship predictions:

Baylor Bears

Woah. Head coach Scott Drew has been busy since the end of this past season. Drew signed V.J. Edgecombe, the nation’s No. 1 small forward recruit, but he didn’t stop there; he also snagged Norchad Omier and Jeremy Roach in the transfer portal, two players who can help Baylor enter contender status.

Omier averaged a monstrous 17 points and ten rebounds in the ACC on 55.2% shooting from the field, while Roach has been a four-year player for the Blue Devils and is fresh off a 2023-24 campaign that saw him posting 14 points per game on an outstanding 42.9% shooting from 3-point land.

Further, Drew kept some key returners, including Langston Love and Jayden Nunn, two sharpshooters who will allow the Bears to be one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation once again. An improvement on the defensive end of the floor would make this team nearly impossible to beat due to their talent level and 3-point shooting ability.

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UConn Huskies

It is official: as long as Dan Hurley is coaching, we will not rule out a UConn National Championship. Hurley and the Huskies have put together two of the most convincing NCAA Tournament runs in college basketball history, beating all 12 of their opponents by double-digits, including the Final Four and National Championship games.

Sure, Hurley and company will lose Cam Spencer, Tristen Newton, Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle, and, more than likely, Alex Karaban; however, they have been busy in the transfer portal and have a ton of talent returning, including Hassan Diarra, Solomon Ball, Jayden Ross, Jaylin Stewart, and Samson Johnson.

That group alone would be talented enough to compete for another Big East championship. Still, Hurley signed Liam McNeely, a former 5-star Indiana commit, and stole Aidan Mahaney (Saint Mary’s) in the transfer portal. Between Diarra, Mahaney, and McNeely, the Huskies have one of the best backcourts in the country.

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Kansas Jayhawks

An unfortunate season-ending injury to Kevin McCullar Jr. resulted in an early exit from the 2024 NCAA Tournament, but the Jayhawks will be reloaded heading into next season, courtesy of head coach Bill Self’s work on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal. 

Self also has done a fantastic job of retaining his players. The Jayhawks are one of five D-I schools that did not have any player transfer out of the program. That is an incredible feat in today’s NIL and transfer portal era. This program has plenty of cohesion, chemistry, and new and impressive talent.

Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris Jr., K.J. Adams Jr., Elmarko Jackson, and Zach Clemence will all return to the team next season. Johnny Furphy, who declared for the 2024 NBA Draft, is also leaving his collegiate eligibility open for a possible return.

Self signed 5-star freshman center Flory Bidunga and snagged Riley Kugel (Florida), A.J. Storr (Wisconsin), Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State), and Rylan Griffen (Alabama) in the transfer portal. Kansas will undoubtedly be the best team in the nation if it can also bring back Furphy, but even without him, the Jayhawks are good enough to run the table next March.

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Who Will Win the NCAA Tournament - My Pick 

Kansas Jayhawks

There should be no surprises here. The Kansas Jayhawks dominated the transfer portal, recruiting incoming freshmen and retaining nearly all of their top talent, save Kevin McCullar, from last season.

The Jayhawks will have the most experienced, talented, and cohesive team in college basketball entering the 2024-25 regular season, especially if Johnny Furphy decides he wants to play one more year of college basketball. At that point, Kansas will have the best starting lineup and bench, a rare combination in the sport.

I love this group’s scoring and shooting ability. With so much established cohesiveness, they won’t lose many games, even in the Big 12.

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Who Won the NCAA Tournament in 2024

The UConn Huskies became the first team to win back-to-back National Championships in the NCAA Tournament since the Florida Gators did it in 2006 and 2007. Florida had three very talented future NBA players on those teams: Joakim Noah, Al Horford, and Corey Brewer.

NCAA Tournament History

The NCAA Tournament was founded in 1939, making it 85 years since the inception of one of the most popular sporting events in the world. In its beginning stages, the NCAA Tournament only had eight teams but has since expanded to 68 teams as of 2011, when the “First Four” games were introduced. There are two ways for teams to get into the NCAA Tournament: winning their conference tournament or receiving an at-large bid.

There are 32 conferences in Division I basketball, meaning 32 teams punch their ticket before “Selection Sunday,” completely avoiding the “sweat” of waiting to hear their name called. The remaining 36 teams are “at-large,” which is awarded for having a successful season and winning meaningful games.

Despite having not won a National Championship since 1995, the UCLA Bruins have the most titles of any college basketball team, with 11 titles. During his tenure, legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden won 10 National Championships with the Bruins. Kentucky (8), North Carolina (6), Duke (5), UConn (5), and Indiana (5) rank second through fourth (three-way tie), respectively. 

Past NCAA Tournament Winners

Listed below are the past 15 NCAA Tournament champions, starting with the most recent champions. Take a look.

How to Choose the Best Sportsbook for Betting on the NCAA Tournament

Several factors determine how to choose the best sportsbook for betting on the NCAA Tournament. First, you should always consider which sportsbook has the best odds for the bets you want to place. If you wish to place a number of bets during the NCAA Tournament, it might make sense to have multiple sportsbooks to ensure you get the best value possible.

Beyond finding out who has the best odds, you should also consider which sportsbooks offer the best welcome bonus, what their payment options are for depositing and withdrawing funds, the user interface of their apps, and much more!

The table below details some of the advantages of BetMGM, Caesars, and FanDuel. Check it out.

How to Read NCAA Tournament Winner Odds

Understanding odds can get confusing if you are newer to the betting scene. If a team’s betting odds have a minus in front of them, they are a favorite; if the betting odds have a plus in front, they are an underdog.

For example, if the Houston Cougars are -115 to make the Final Four, then they are considered a favorite (greater than 50% chance of making it). You would have to bet $115 to win $100.

However, if you are betting the Purdue Boilermakers to win the National Championship at +750, you would only have to bet $100 to win $750 because they are significant underdogs to win six consecutive games in the NCAA Tournament.