\nTo put that in perspective, winning Mega Millions has far better odds at just one in 302.5 million.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In March Madness, the unexpected should be expected. And in 2019, data suggests upsets could come as early as the first round.<\/p>\n
Upset Alerts<\/b><\/h2>\n FiveThirtyEight<\/i>, statistician Nate Silver’s online site, has formulated predictions on the NCAA tournament based on input from both computers and human analysis. And three games have decent chances for a big upset.<\/p>\n\n
In the South, No. 5 Wisconsin plays No. 12 Oregon. The Ducks are playing well after a Pac-12 tournament win, and have a 40 percent chance of beating the Badgers, so says Silver’s model. The Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas agrees, as the sportsbook has Wisconsin spotting Oregon just 1.5 points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While the Big Ten team in the South might be upset, in the Midwest a Big Ten conference team hopes to play spoiler. No. 11 Ohio State plays No. 6 Iowa State where Silver says the Buckeyes have a 33 percent chance of winning. Las Vegas has the Cyclones spotting the underdogs 5.5 points.<\/p>\n
In the West, No. 5 Marquette is on alert against No. 12 Murray State. FiveThirtyEight <\/i>gives the Racers a 36 percent chance of beating the Golden Eagles. The SuperBook has Marquette spotting just four points.<\/p>\n
The upset of them all came a year ago when the UMBC Retrievers became the first No. 16 team to beat a No. 1 seed (Virginia Cavaliers) in the history of the NCAA men’s tournament. There have been 16 upsets involving a No. 12 and No. 5 team over the last decade.<\/p>\n
Contenders Expected to Roll Early<\/b><\/h2>\n While the first round threatens the end of the season for many teams, for the top programs, many of the games are expected to be blowouts.<\/p>\n
Duke has a greater than 99 percent chance of beating the winner of the NCCU\/NDST play-in game. The three other No. 3 seeds \u2013 Virginia, UNC, and Gonzaga \u2013 are all at 99 percent.<\/strong><\/p>\nUNC is spotting No. 16 Iona 24 points, while Virginia is spotting No. 16 Gardner-Webb 23.5.<\/p>\n
As for winning the national championship, overall top seed Duke<\/a> has the strongest chance at 19 percent. Virginia is next at 17 percent, and then Gonzaga (14 percent) and UNC (nine percent).<\/p>\nThe SuperBook slightly varies, with the current odds at Duke (9\/4), Gonzaga (9\/2), and UNC and Virginia (6\/1).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
March Madness officially tips off tonight with the First Four play-in games, but the real actions gets underway on Thursday when the First Round begins the craziness that is the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. A total of 68 teams have reached the tourney. Calculating odds of a seeded sports tournament isn’t an exact science, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":100911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
NCAA March Madness First Round Teams on Upset Alert<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n