Duke is early favorite to win 2026-27 college basketball national championship
The Michigan Wolverines defeated the UConn Huskies 69-63 on Monday night to claim their first national championship since 1989 — an impressive feat for head coach Dusty May and a team that went 37-3. But they won’t be favored at sportsbooks to repeat as champions.
Oddsmakers at BetMGM have installed the have installed the Duke Blue Devils as the early favorite to win the 2026-27 national championship at +800, just ahead of the Florida Gators (10-1). Michigan also has 10-1 odds to repeat.
Florida won the national championship in 2024, but Todd Golden’s squad was upset in the second round of this year’s tournament 73-72 by No. 9 seed Iowa.
Jon Scheyer’s Duke team is the favorite at several other sportsbooks as well — despite the likely losses of Naismith Player of the Year Cameron Boozer, and standouts Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba. Duke opened with 11-1 odds at BetMGM on Monday night, but moved to +800 overnight.
The Blue Devils were the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s tourney but suffered another devastating loss, falling 73-72 on a last-second 3-pointer by UConn’s Braylon Mullins that will live on in tournament lore.
Michigan State and Arizona are tied for the fourth-best odds at 14-1.
UConn, which made the national championship game for the third time in the past four seasons, also has 15-1 odds. The Huskies covered the spread in the title game for the 19th time in their past 20 NCAA tournament games.
Illinois, which lost to UConn in the Final Four, opened with 22-1 odds.
Sportsbooks did well on futures, as St. John’s, Arkansas and long-shot Miami (OH) were knocked out of the tournament. No. 1 seed Arizona had the most bets and wagers to win it all at BetMGM. Sportsbooks cut Michigan’s odds drastically after the Wolverines’ performance in November out in Las Vegas, so Michigan winning was a good result for the books.
One bettor at DraftKings stood to win just over $1 million if UConn beat Michigan, as he had a $77,000 wager on the Huskies at 13-1 to win it all. Unfortunately, UConn came up just a little short.
