Betting the First Round of the NCAA Tournament

Written March 18, 2009 by Jack Jones

first-round-tournament-betting If you plan on betting the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament your first step should be to figure out the strengths of each of the conferences involved. You have to look past conference records, because there are some leagues that are mediocre while others beat each other up so much that their records look worse than the team actually is. Whatever your opinion is it will have an effect on how your NCAA basketball betting shakes out during the tournament so let’s take a look at the power conferences. Don’t have an account to bet? Sign up at Sports Interaction and get a 20% signup bonus, plus you can deposit with your checking account!

Big Ten – A great example is the Big Ten, where you would find both Illinois and Purdue tied for second in the conference at 11-7. The next three schools in the standings all had records of 10-8. I haven’t see that close of a grouping between top teams in recent memory. Only Michigan State who dominated the league and Indiana who got picked on by everyone else were outliers, so know you have to figure out if that means everyone is evenly matched talent-wise, but does that mean they were good or just average. Something you have to think about before making your college basketball picks, that’s for sure.

Pac-10 – This is another conference were parity ruled as Arizona State and Cal both tied for third place in the standings despite racking up seven losses. Most pundits think the Pac-10 was pretty loaded this year, but you should check the numbers yourself before making a decision.

SEC – Most pundits think that this was a down year for the league, with only LSU, Tennessee, and Mississippi State (the tournament winners) making the dance. Auburn and South Carolina were tied for 2nd in the league standings and were left for the NIT. With the Gamecocks losing to Davidson it doesn’t bode well for this conference being under-rated. Still, you can probably find some pretty good NCAA basketball spreads on these teams because the public is so against them.

Big 12 – Sure Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma are ahead of the pack, but how good are teams like Texas and Texas A&M? It should be noted here that Arkansas went 2-14 in the SEC and the Razorbacks took down both Oklahoma and Texas in non-conference play.

The other two BCS conferences are the Big East and the ACC, which are widely regarded as stacked, but are they as good as everyone thinks? Take a look at the non-conference schedules and results. I also think it’s important to see how other teams in the league do in the NIT on the days leading up to the tournament. This will give you a feel for how the conference is doing in relation to other schools and should help you with betting the first round of the NCAA tournament or just filling out your bracket.

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