NCAA Tournament Opener Odds Now Up at betED
March Madness is officially here as the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament starts this week, and betED.com has odds for all the opening matchups.
Big East champion Louisville - the No. 1 seed both overall and in the Midwest Region - will play their first game on Friday against either Alabama State or Morehead State, who will meet in Tuesday's opening-round play-in game.
Morehead State is a 4-point favorite and the over/under is 130 in NCAA Tournament Betting Odds at betED.com.
Louisville beat the Syracuse Orange 76-66 in the Big East championship game Saturday night.
As one would expect, the other three top seeds - the Pittsburgh Panthers, Connecticut Huskies and North Carolina Tar Heels - are all heavy favorites in their opening-round games.
North Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the South region, is a 27.5-point favorite - the largest spread of the first round - against the Radford Highlanders in their opening game on Thursday (7:30 pm ET, ESPN).
The Tar Heels, the only one of the top four seeds not in the Big East conference, were denied their third straight North Carolina ACC championship when they lost 73-70 to Florida State on Saturday in the semifinals of the ACC tournament.
Connecticut, No. 1 in the West region, is favored by 21.5 against the Tennessee Mocs in their opening game.
And Pittsburgh, the East regional's No. 1 seed, are 21.5-point faves over the East Tennessee State Bucs.
The Big East became the first conference to have three teams as top seeds in the tournament. Overall, the conference has seven teams in the NCAA Tournament, the others being Villanova, Syracuse, Marquette and West Virginia.
If the top four seeds all make it to the Final Four, Louisville would take on Connecticut and Pittsburgh would face North Carolina.
The NCAA National Championship game is slated for April 6 at Ford Field in Detroit.
Check out odds for all 64 teams at betED.com.
