You won't be shocked to hear that Kentucky is among the bookie's favorites to win the 2013 basketball national championship. You may be a little bit surprised to learn that Louisville and Indiana are both given shorter odds by the sports-betting site Sportsbook.ag, however.
Indiana was given the best odds at the national title at +700, with Louisville right behind them at +800. Calipari's Wildcats were given a slightly-larger gap, checking in at +1200. Kentucky's stock apparently dropped on the site when they saw all of their top players enter the NBA Draft for a second consecutive year.
According to USA Today's report, however, the Sportsbook.ag bookmakers have set the pre-season odd on Villanova recovering from last season's disappointment and running all the way to the title at +10,000. In fact, the Wildcats are in good company, sharing that mark with 33 other schools whose championship hopes may be long.
Most-notable, the odds given included:
+700: Indiana
+800: Louisville
+1200: Kentucky
+1500: Syracuse, Ohio State, Kansas, Michigan State
+2000: Duke, Missouri, North Carolina, UCLA, Florida, Arizona
+2500: Florida
+3000: Arizona, Michigan
+4000: UNLV, NC State, Memphis
+6000: Texas, Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, Cincinnati, Georgetown
+7500: Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, Wisconsin
+10000: Kansas State, Florida State, St. Louis, San Diego State, Creighton, Tennessee, Alabama, Cal, VCU, Minnesota, Virginia, Marquette, Washington, Seton Hall, Iowa State, St. John's, West Virginia, Villanova, Illinois, St. Joe's, Stanford, Wichita State, BYU, Drexel, Butler, Providence, Davidson, Ohio, Texas A&M, Xavier, Arkansas, Iowa, Baylor.
Covers.com, a website covering the gambling industry, has a more-extensive list of odds, going all the way to +50,000, where you will currently find Rutgers and Harvard -- in case you were wondering, that is lower than DePaul's odds at +30,000 and the odds for "field" (any school not listed) at +10,000.
I wouldn't advise anyone to burn their hard earned money betting on Villanova winning a national championship in 2013. The odds given are long for a reason, and the most-likely result of that bet is that you will never see your money again (which is really true for any pre-season bet on an NCAA hoops champion, regardless of odds).