The Madness of March has begun, as the largest liabilities for sportsbooks over the next couple days are shaping up to be the No. 13 seeds — Akron, South Dakota State, Chattanooga and Vermont.
At DraftKings, the Zips of Akron are getting 87 percent of the money as a 13.5-point underdog to UCLA, even after dropping two points from the initial spread of +15.5. Akron wouldn’t usually get this much respect here, but they did beat the No. 1 and No. 2 seed en route to the MAC Tournament bid.
BetMGM’s biggest liability in the Round of 64 is Vermont. No. 13 Catamounts are the most bet team by money (80%), the second most lopsided team by tickets and the game against No. 4 Arkansas is the third most popular game overall. Momentum is largely valued heading into the tournament and UVM has won 22 of its last 23 games.
For PointsBet, it’s another No. 13 seed that is the book’s largest liability — it’s the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State. A whopping 84 percent of the money is on SDSU against No. 4 Providence, who has been bashed by pundits after the Big East regular season champ got trounced in the semifinals 85-58 at the hands of Creighton. Meanwhile, the Jackrabbits are the hottest team in the tournament, having won 21 straight including a perfect 18-0 in conference play.
There’s no exception for the lone No. 4/No. 13 matchup on Friday. Chattanooga is currently getting 70 percent of the money at BetMGM as 7.5 point underdogs against Illinois. Even though Illinois has one of the biggest names in the tournament in Kofi Cockburn, Chattanooga can shoot the ball and has the Cinderella appeal from Jean David Baptiste’s heave that got them into the Big Dance.
No. 13 seeds are 69-74-1 against the spread against No. 4 seeds since 1985.
They haven’t done as well as No. 15 seeds (76-65-3) and No. 12 seeds (75-65-4).
