NCAA Men's Final Four Betting Preview: What To Know About The Teams That Made It Through The Madness Of March

Zinger Key Points
  • This year's Final Four includes two top seeds, one No. 4 seed and a Cinderella story.
  • The betting lines heading into the weekend currently have both No. 1 seeds as heavy favorites to make it to the championship game.

68 teams entered the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and only four remain. Here’s what you need to know ahead of this weekend’s Final Four games.

And Then There Were 4: This year’s Final Four includes two top seeds, one No. 4 seed and a Cinderella story.

The No.1 seeded Purdue Boilermakers will face off against No. 11 seed North Carolina State in the first matchup of the weekend, with tip off set for 6:09 p.m. ET on Saturday. The No. 1 seed UConn Huskies will take on No. 4 seed Alabama immediately after at 8:49 p.m. ET.

Saturday’s Final Four games will settle who gets to play in the National Championship game on April 8, and also bring us one step closer to seeing who won their office bracket challenges.

As previously reported by Benzinga, the odds of a perfect bracket in March Madness are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Sadly, no perfect brackets were left after just the first two days of games in the first round. However, many people still have a chance to get the tournament winner correct.

Heading into the tournament, UConn was the most popular pick in Walt Disney Co’s DIS ESPN Tournament Challenge, with 24.7% of the 22 million brackets having selected the Huskies as the last team standing.

If the UConn Huskies win this weekend, the team will have an opportunity to become the first program to win back-to-back National Championships since the Florida Gators in 2006-2007.

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Purdue was the third most popular pick to win it all in the ESPN Tournament Challenge with 10.1% of brackets having selected the Boilermakers. Alabama was chosen by just 0.9% of bracket challenge participants and NC State was picked by a whopping 0.4%.

Place Your Bets: The betting lines heading into the weekend currently have both No. 1 seeds as heavy favorites to make it to the championship game.

DraftKings Inc DKNG Sportsbook has Purdue listed as a nine-point favorite over North Carolina State. The total for the game is set at 146. This is Purdue’s third trip to the Final Four, but it will mark the fourth appearance for NC State, who went on to win the National Championship in two of its previous three trips to the Final Four.

DraftKings has an even bigger spread on the UConn-Alabama game. The Huskies are currently 12-point favorites to beat the Crimson Tide On Saturday. The total for the game is set at 160.

UConn is coming off of a National Championship in last year’s tournament and is making its seventh Final Four appearance. The team has won a remarkable five championships and all of them have occurred since 1999. Alabama will be playing in the Final Four for the first time.

Here’s a look at the betting odds for each remaining team to win the Men’s National Championship:

  • UConn: -195
  • Purdue: +205
  • Alabama: +1600
  • North Carolina State: +1600

Both Final Four games and the National Championship will be aired on TBS, TNT and truTV, which are owned by Paramount Global PARA. The games can also be streamed via Paramount+.

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This illustration was generated using artificial intelligence via MidJourney.

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