March Madness Betting: Championship Week
Written March 5, 2009 by Jack Jones
March Madness is here as Championship Week has started and teams all across the country are playing with a win or die mentality. There are plenty of opportunities to make some money with your NCAA basketball betting before the first round tournament lines come out after March 15th’s Selection Sunday. Let’s take a look at how you can exploit some soft college basketball odds from now until then. Bet March Madness at Bodog, one of the most user-friendly online sportsbooks!
The opening week of conference tournaments is pretty quiet, as low majors and mid-major leagues decide their champions. These games are all very high stakes though, as most of these leagues will not have any at-large teams making the dance, so it’s all or nothing.
Your best bets for Championship week are in the lower conferences. This is where the #1 seed won the regular season title and is head and shoulders above everyone else in the league. They will be heavy chalk in their games, but will be playing with intensity since if they lose they know their seasons are over. Here are three conferences that the favorites have tended to rake in the cash during the tournament:
Atlantic-10: 32-19 ATS
MAC: 26-15 ATS
WAC: 11-6 ATS
Two of these conferences have produced two of the more favorite Cinderella teams in recent years: Xavier from the Atlantic-10 and Gonzaga out of the WAC. These teams don’t have to worry about the pressure as much any more since they are almost guaranteed spots in the tournament. Gonzaga is a heavy 2-7 favorite to win the WAC, but both of these teams were 0-2 ATS in their 2008 conference tournaments.
A team like Kent State was 2-1 ATS as the top seed in the MAC when they won the tourney as the #1 seed and earned the league’s only invite. The Golden Flashes went on to face UNLV in the first round and didn’t live up to the Cinderella story, lsoing by 13 points as a small favorite.
When it’s time to fill out your NCAA tournament brackets you have to remember that seeding is important. Even if you like how they are playing, a no. 15 or no. 16 seed has almost no chance of winning straigh up:
No. 1 v. No. 16: 96-0
No. 2 v. No. 15: 92-4
However, as you work your way down the teams start finding the Cinderella Zone:
No. 3 v. No. 14: 81-15
No. 4 v. No. 13: 79-17
No. 5 v. No. 12: 65-31
These 3-5 seeds are most often teams from major conferences. Last year it was Vanderbilt, Connecticut, and Clemson that failed to make it past the first round.
Another interesting tid bit comes from the SEC, where #1 seeds are 18-7 ATS during Championship Week. Then again last year that team was Tennessee, who went 0-2 ATS and lost to Arkansas. The Vols carried that poor play over to the tournament and went just 1-2 in the Big Dance.
If you want more help finding winners then make sure you sign up for the college basketball picks offered by our handicappers!
If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:
- March Madness Tips: Did You Know?
- 2009 March Madness Betting Preview
- Mid-Major March Madness Predictions
- 2009 March Madness Predictions
- Cleveland State vs Wake Forest: March Madness Odds & Picks
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