Wait, who has the third best odds to win it all next year?
This past week, the men’s college basketball season wrapped up with a thrilling national championship game. But since we are a “what have you done for me lately” society, we are already looking toward the 2025-26 season.
So, this week, our friends at SB Nation Reacts surveyed college hoops fans about who they think will be cutting down the nets a year from now. We are going to take a look at the results and compare them to what the Vegas bookmakers have to say.
Even though Matt Painter’s squad lost in the Sweet 16 to the eventual runners-up, the Purdue Boilermakers are the favorites in the SBN Reacts poll, albeit by the slimmest of margins. The Choo-Choos are followed closely by two Final 4 participants, the Duke Blue Devils and Houston Cougars.
Likely not coincidentally, those are three of the top four teams in the current FanDuel Sportsbook odds to take home the title next year. However, Purdue is tied for third in those rankings at +1400 — who are they tied with, you ask? More on that in a second.
Duke is in first place at +1000, and Houston is in second at +1200. But right alongside Purdue at +1400 are the BYU Cougars, who, like the Boilermakers, lost in the Sweet 16, getting demolished by the Arizona Wildcats 113-88.
Now, it would make sense that people — fans and bookmakers alike — have faith in Purdue as they are a consistently high-quality team, capable of winning a title just about every year. However, you might be wondering why a team that has never been particularly relevant on the national stage is getting the same benefit of the doubt after being beaten by 25 points in the tournament.
The answer is likely that folks are excited about what first-year head coach Kevin Young was able to do in his first season in Provo. With eight seasons as an NBA assistant first with the Philadelphia 76ers and then the Phoenix Suns (where he was eventually the associate head coach), Young has the experience and expertise to lead a team looking to take the next step forward, but also to convince talented players to come to Utah and play at a school with an honor code.
BYU fans are already talking about the 2025-26 roster perhaps being the best in program history, and if any of them want to break the honor code and put some money on that, they can make $1,400 with just a $100 bet if the Cougars win the national title next April.