College Basketball Futures: 2024-25 Men’s National Championship Odds, Favorites & Best Bets

See below for the men’s college basketball national championship odds. NCAA basketball odds vary by sportsbook and are subject to change.

• Duke: +900
• Alabama: +1200
• Kansas: +1200
• Gonzaga: +1200
• Houston: +1200
• Auburn: +1200
• UConn: +1400
• Iowa State: +1800
• Kentucky: +2200
• North Carolina: +2800
• Tennessee: +3000
• Arizona: +4000
• Baylor: +4000
• Arkansas: +4000
• Purdue: +4000
• Indiana: +4500
• Creighton: +5000
• Cincinnati: +5000
• Saint Johns: +5000
• Rutgers: +5000

Not surprisingly, Duke is an early favorite to win the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils have the best freshman class in the country led by Cooper Flagg, the likely No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.  

While there’s still some trepidation around Duke because 10 of its 12 scholarship players weren’t on the roster last year, Flagg is the best American prospect in years. He and Kon Knueppel form the best tandem in the country. 

After winning it all last year, UConn will have to replace four starters from its championship team. However, it has sharpshooting freshman Liam McNeeley and a solid group of guards led by Solomon Ball. 

When it comes to the SEC, Alabama leads the charge with its unparalleled depth. The Crimson Tide boast veteran starters like Chris Youngblood and Mark Sears along with impact freshmen like Aiden Sherrell. 

At Kansas, Bill Self’s team added Zeke Mayo and Rylan Griffen through the transfer portal to an already experienced team, but the roster has some odd fits on paper. 

See below for the list of men’s NCAA basketball champions since 2000. Note that no tournament was played in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

• 2024: Connecticut
• 2023: Connecticut
• 2022: Kansas
• 2021: Baylor
• 2019: Virginia
• 2018: Villanova
• 2017: North Carolina
• 2016: Villanova
• 2015: Duke
• 2014: Connecticut
• 2013: Louisville (later vacated due to rules violations)
• 2012: Kentucky
• 2011: Connecticut
• 2010: Duke
• 2009: North Carolina
• 2008: Kansas
• 2007: Florida
• 2006: Florida
• 2005: North Carolina
• 2004: Connecticut
• 2003: Syracuse
• 2002: Maryland
• 2001: Duke
• 2000: Michigan State 

While Duke will likely go through some growing pains, we find it hard to bet against the Blue Devils considering the amount of talent on their roster.

Outside of Duke, the team that we think has the best chance to win it all is Alabama. The Crimson Tide have a loaded roster, an experienced coach in Nate Oats and the most underrated player in the country in Sears.

Last year’s Alabama team made its first Final Four appearance in program history, and this year’s squad might be better. Had it not run into UConn in the Final Four, it might have gone all the way.

Betting on a team to win the men’s college basketball national championship follows the same process as betting on a team to win the Super Bowl or a team to win the World Series. 

Simply go to your favorite sportsbook, find the “Futures” tab under the college basketball section and scroll to National Champion. 

Select the team you want to wager on to add them to your bet slip. Once you’ve done that, enter the amount of money you’d like to wager and press “Submit.”

College basketball futures odds will change throughout the season, but your bet will settle at the odds of the time you placed your wager. So if you bet on Duke at +1200 odds but their preseason odds were +950, your wager will be paid out at +1200.

Teams typically have plus odds to win the National Championship, meaning you stand to win more money than you risk. A team usually only has minus odds late in the NCAA Tournament when there are only a handful of teams remaining.

Odds to win the NCAA Tournament are so long because you are betting on one team against the field, and it’s a pretty big field. There are over 350 men’s college basketball teams in Division I, 68 of which make March Madness. That makes it difficult to pick which squad will be the last one standing.

You can make a NCAAB futures bet at any point in the season, up until the National Championship Game.

Many sportsbooks release NCAA basketball futures odds and lines before the season starts, which is a popular time to place NCAAB futures bets before games start and the odds move.

Odds to win the NCAA Tournament will fluctuate constantly throughout the season as teams rise and fall in the rankings based on their record. As the season progresses, odds typically become shorter (and thus less profitable) for top teams as frontrunners emerge.

You can still place futures bets through the NCAA Tournament, although March Madness odds will change as teams are eliminated.

The benefit of waiting longer to place futures bets is that you’ll have more information at your disposal and a better sense of where teams stand. The trade-off is that the odds may not be as favorable as they were earlier in the season, when there is more uncertainty.

Accordingly, it can be smart to bet on a few teams early in the year, then either double down or pivot to other teams later in the season depending on how your initial teams are doing.