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David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer
It’s crowded atop the odds at sportsbooks to win the men’s college basketball national championship, with three blue bloods jockeying for the role of favorite entering the season.
Duke is the favorite at 9-1 at ESPN BET, followed closely by UConn (10-1) and Kansas (11-1), while other sportsbooks have the two-time defending champion Huskies as the favorites or co-favorites along with the Jayhawks. No preseason favorite has gone on to win the national title since the 2008-09 North Carolina Tar Heels.
Alabama (12-1), Gonzaga (16-1) and Houston (16-1) make up the second tier of title contenders at ESPN BET.
The betting action in the offseason has been split among Duke, UConn and Kansas. Those three teams account for approximately 50% of the money that has been wagered on ESPN BET’s odds to win the national championship.
UConn began the past two seasons as long shots at sportsbooks. The Huskies were 60-1 entering the 2022-23 season and 22-1 ahead of last season but defied the odds and won back-to-back national championships.
Duke has been the preseason national title favorite in three of the last eight seasons and inched in front of UConn late last week in ESPN BET’s championship odds. The Blue Devils boast touted freshman Cooper Flagg.
Kansas features the favorite to win then John Wooden Award in big man Hunter Dickinson (+550). Alabama senior guard Mark Sears (+600) and North Carolina senior guard RJ Davis (+650) are top-tier contenders for the award as well entering the season.