- Wright State, the conference’s regular-season champion, is fairly prohibitive favorites.
- Northern Kentucky is the second favorite with odds +240 to win.
- The entire rest of the conference is +1000 or below.
INDIANAPOLIS - Sports bettors are scrambling to get in on the action for college basketball conference tournaments as the Horizon league begins their quest to send a team to the NCAA tournament.
It may not be March Madness just yet, but the basketball tournaments are arriving in force!
The odds on the conference tournament have the Horizon League regular-season champions, the Wright State Raiders, as a prohibitive -140 favorite, followed by the Northern Kentucky Norse at +240.
This is a fairly understandable conclusion for the online sportsbooks to reach: the two teams have been, by far, the most dominant teams in the conference.
Wright State has an overall record of 25-6, while Northern Kentucky has an overall record of 21-9. The two favorites have played twice this season, with Wright State winning both times in very different fashions.
The first win was on January 24th, 2020, and Wright State was dominant, romping to a 95-63 victory. The second was on February 28th, 2020, and played out very differently, but had the same result: a Wright State victory, although this time only by two points – the score was 64-62.
Overall, what the landscape for the betting favorites looks like is that Wright State seems to have the edge both overall and in the head-to-head matchup against its biggest rival.
But what about the underdogs?
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Nearly the entire rest of the conference is some significant degree of underdog here – the Green Bay Phoenix are +1000, the Youngstown State Penguins and Illinois/Chicago Flames are +1400, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies are +1600, the Milwaukee Panthers are +6000, the Cleveland State Vikings are +10000, and the IUPUI Jaguars bring up the rear with +30000 odds.
This is what makes this conference tournament so potentially intriguing to college basketball bettors – there are a very large number of underdogs in this conference and there are a lot of very long odds to go along with them.
For example, a bettor could wager on every team except the two favorites and come out ahead if any team other than the two favorites win. This sounds good, but there’s a reason why the odds are set the way they are in this conference tournament.
The third shortest odds in the tournament are Green Bay’s +1000, and Green Bay’s overall record is a very average 16-15.
Youngstown State actually has the best record of the non-favorites, with a 17-14 overall record, and they could and would be a dark horse candidate here, but there is one big knock on them: their inability to win on the road.
Youngstown State is 12-4 at home – they actually have a better home record than Northern Kentucky – but only 5-10 on the road.
Overall, there are a lot of betting opportunities in a tournament like this, with heavy favorites and significant underdogs – and the mid-major conference tournaments are excellent watching as well.
Maxwell joined the USAOnlineSportsbooks team in 2019. He focuses on creating sports betting content that informs and educates. He focuses on the NBA, the NFL, College Football and Basketball, and whatever else comes across his desk.
