College Basketball Betting

Linemakers Favor Florida for the NCAA Title

Now you know why they call it March Madness.

The 2006 NCAA men's basketball tournament has been one for the ages; upsets, stunning comeback wins, buzzer-beating 3-pointers - you name it. Out of this chaos has emerged an unlikely Final Four, but there's one thing the books agree on: The Florida Gators are the favorites this week in Indianapolis to win the championship.

The Southeastern Conference champions have put themselves ahead of the pack with victories over the Georgetown Hoyas and the Villanova Wildcats to make it to the Final Four and extend their current winning streak to nine games (6-2-1 against the spread). That's good enough to make the Gators 8-5 favorites at both Sportingbet and Bodog, while bet365 has even shorter odds at 6-4.

The LSU Tigers are next on the odds list at 2-1 on bet365 and 12-5 on Bodog. The Tigers are similar in many ways to the Gators, but there are two factors holding them back on the betting front. One, they appear to have the tougher semifinal opponent in the UCLA Bruins. Two, the Gators thumped LSU 81-65 during the SEC tournament.

The Bruins are slim underdogs against LSU, which leaves them in third place on the odds list at 3-1 on bet365 and 13-4 on Bodog. But there are many who believe UCLA can throw a monkey wrench into the Tigers' juggernaut, much as they did against those other Tigers from Memphis. UCLA knocked out the No. 1 seed in the Oakland Region with flypaper defense to reach the Final Four and improve to 11-0 SU (9-2 ATS) since Feb. 23.

Then there are the George Mason Patriots. Only the second No. 11 seed ever to make the Final Four, the Pats are in tough yet again versus the Gators, leaving them 4-1 at Bodog and 6-1 at bet365. Not that handicappers would be truly surprised if George Mason won, having already seen three of the past six NCAA champions toppled by the Patriots thus far. That's why a bet on Florida is anything but money in the bank.