Now that I’ve had a little time to process Michigan beating UConn in the men’s national championship game Monday night, ending the Wolverines’ four-game skid in title games and giving the Big Ten its first championship since 2000, I can start to at least picture the 2026-27 season. And to no surprise in the NIL era, it is the wealthy blue-bloods like Duke and the Wolverines who have opened atop the BetMGM board.
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Michigan was never close to an underdog in this this year’s tournament in becoming the first school all-time to start five transfers in a national title game. It was clearly the best team, finishing with a plus-114 point margin, the seventh-highest total ever by a national champion and sixth-best since the field expanded in 1985.
Favorites went a whopping 49-18 SU in the dance (that’s NIL talking) — including one run of 22 straight wins — and 36-31 ATS. It finished as the highest-scoring tournament (averaged 149.7 PPG) since 1993 and featured the highest points-per-game differential (+14.4) since 1993. Freshmen totaled their most points ever.
Should Michigan return to the championship game on April 5, 2027, it would basically have home-court advantage because next year’s Final Four is at Ford Field in Detroit (though technically Michigan State is the host). The Spartans had been the last Big Ten school to win it all in men’s hoops, in 2000. How long ago was that? No current Michigan player was alive, and head coach Dusty May was Indiana’s student manager.
There already has been some decent futures movement at BetMGM even with the 2027 national championship odds not having been active long. Duke, the only non-Big Ten team to beat the Wolverines this season, opened +1100 but is now +800. So is Michigan, which was +1300 for next season entering the title game but has taken the most handle (34.3%) and tickets (14.9%) so far. Duke is second in both, with Florida third.
I sure would have liked to have seen a Duke-Michigan rematch on Monday, but UConn of course staged that epic comeback in the Elite Eight. The transfer portal is currently open, so there’s not much point giving out any 2026-27 recommendations yet.
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I’ll also address the University of North Carolina, which hasn’t moved from its open of +2500 at BetMGM but is taking just 2.0% of tickets and 1.8% of handle. The Tar Heels were rejected by the likes of May, Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and Iowa State’s TJ Otzelberger for their head coach opening, so perhaps school officials panicked a bit in hiring Michael Malone. He is UNC’s first hire outside of the Tar Heels “family” since Frank McGuire in 1952.
Yes, Malone won the NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets in the 2022-23 season but was fired in 2024-25 and has never been a college head coach — and not even an assistant at that level since 2001 at Manhattan. Malone is well-respected for his X’s and O’s acumen and has spent the past 10-plus months as an ESPN analyst. Such a baffling hire, as Malone had no formal ties to North Carolina other than his daughter Bridget being a sophomore on UNC’s volleyball team.
Reportedly, the Heels felt they had to make a move quickly with the transfer portal opening and could not wait on a decision from Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan, a two-time national championship coach at Florida. Donovan wasn’t going to make a decision until the Bulls’ season ended on April 12, but the team just overhauled its front office so he likely leaves anyways.
Again, it’s not clear exactly what the Heels might look like next season with the portal currently open – a few UNC guys have already entered, led by former four-star freshman and starting point guard Derek Dixon. Malone has no modern-day recruiting experience (he does have a connection with prominent international agent Misko Raznatovic through Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic), but UNC surely will be a preseason AP Top 25 club on name alone.
Superstar freshman Caleb Wilson is a goner as a top-10 NBA Draft pick, but 7-footer Henri Veesaar is an All-America-level player if Malone can keep him around. UNC’s current recruiting class sits 29th nationally on sister site 247Sports’ composite rankings, led by four-star guard Dylan Mingo, who is ranked as the No. 8 player in the country.
When looking at the below odds, again notice no West Coast teams among the favorites (with the Pac-12 coming back). We still haven’t had a team from out West win the dance since Arizona in 1997, although the UCLA women won their first crown Sunday.
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