🟢 Rainbet.com | 🏀 March Madness 2026 🏀 NCAA Men's College Basketball

[jeremypwr]

I wanted to get a thread going for the NCAA Men's College Basketball tournament.

The "First Four" play-in games begins today 3/17 - 3/18.

The "1st Round" with the 64-team bracket officially begins this Thursday, 3/19

The "Final Four" which more people are familiar with will conclude on 4/6.

Interested to see if we can get some conversations going; maybe Rainbet will run some Free Bet promos 🤑

https://rainbet.com/sportsbook/basketball/usa/ncaa-1671176722067976192

[goodpunt]

I regularly play NCAA basketball brackets with questionable success

This year I want to back some outright winners outside the top 3 odds-favs!
Anyone got recommendations about some dark horses?
One team I will surely back are the defending champions Florida Gators - not sure if it's smart!?

[jeremypwr]

I regularly play NCAA basketball brackets with questionable success

This year I want to back some outright winners outside the top 3 odds-favs!
Anyone got recommendations about some dark horses?
One team I will surely back are the defending champions Florida Gators - not sure if it's smart!?

Florida will definitely be a team to keep an eye on for this year's tournament.
As the #1 seed in the south, later tonight we will find out if they play either Lehigh or Prairie View.
Regardless which team it is, they should be 25+ point favorites and easily advance to Round 2.

[yahoo62278]

I regularly play NCAA basketball brackets with questionable success

This year I want to back some outright winners outside the top 3 odds-favs!
Anyone got recommendations about some dark horses?
One team I will surely back are the defending champions Florida Gators - not sure if it's smart!?

Florida will definitely be a team to keep an eye on for this year's tournament.
As the #1 seed in the south, later tonight we will find out if they play either Lehigh or Prairie View.
Regardless which team it is, they should be 25+ point favorites and easily advance to Round 2.

Arizona is the favorite this year, at least most of the sports shows I watch favor them. Lot's prob think Duke as well, but I don't think Florida makes it past the Elite 8 round.

Wouldn't mind seeing something interesting from rainbet for the tourney but might be a little late unless it's only some little final 4 promo.

[jeremypwr]

I regularly play NCAA basketball brackets with questionable success

This year I want to back some outright winners outside the top 3 odds-favs!
Anyone got recommendations about some dark horses?
One team I will surely back are the defending champions Florida Gators - not sure if it's smart!?

Florida will definitely be a team to keep an eye on for this year's tournament.
As the #1 seed in the south, later tonight we will find out if they play either Lehigh or Prairie View.
Regardless which team it is, they should be 25+ point favorites and easily advance to Round 2.

Arizona is the favorite this year, at least most of the sports shows I watch favor them. Lot's prob think Duke as well, but I don't think Florida makes it past the Elite 8 round.

Wouldn't mind seeing something interesting from rainbet for the tourney but might be a little late unless it's only some little final 4 promo.

Yeah for whatever reason, Rainbet doesn't currently have the Outright odds to win the Championship (although I do believe they did at some point).
I'm guessing they will be added once we know the winners of tonight's last two First Four" play-in games between Prairie View/Lehigh and Miami(OH)/SMU.
https://rainbet.com/sportsbook/basketball/usa/ncaa-1671176722067976192

[Harkorede]

I regularly play NCAA basketball brackets with questionable success

This year I want to back some outright winners outside the top 3 odds-favs!
Anyone got recommendations about some dark horses?
One team I will surely back are the defending champions Florida Gators - not sure if it's smart!?

Florida will definitely be a team to keep an eye on for this year's tournament.
As the #1 seed in the south, later tonight we will find out if they play either Lehigh or Prairie View.
Regardless which team it is, they should be 25+ point favorites and easily advance to Round 2.

Arizona is the favorite this year, at least most of the sports shows I watch favor them. Lot's prob think Duke as well, but I don't think Florida makes it past the Elite 8 round.

Wouldn't mind seeing something interesting from rainbet for the tourney but might be a little late unless it's only some little final 4 promo.

If I were to have my money on team blindly here right, I’ll likely have it on Houston, remembering what transpired last season and how they were in the position to win the title before losing to Florida, I think nothing serves as a better form of motivation, and maybe it would be better not being rated as the No. 1 seed, that could reduce the pressure on them.

I’ll also be looking forward to the outright odds to see if I could find some odds of decent value.

[goodpunt]

Florida will definitely be a team to keep an eye on for this year's tournament.
As the #1 seed in the south, later tonight we will find out if they play either Lehigh or Prairie View.
Regardless which team it is, they should be 25+ point favorites and easily advance to Round 2.

Arizona is the favorite this year, at least most of the sports shows I watch favor them. Lot's prob think Duke as well, but I don't think Florida makes it past the Elite 8 round.

Wouldn't mind seeing something interesting from rainbet for the tourney but might be a little late unless it's only some little final 4 promo.

If I were to have my money on team blindly here right, I’ll likely have it on Houston, remembering what transpired last season and how they were in the position to win the title before losing to Florida, I think nothing serves as a better form of motivation, and maybe it would be better not being rated as the No. 1 seed, that could reduce the pressure on them.

I’ll also be looking forward to the outright odds to see if I could find some odds of decent value.

Thanks I appreciate your insights
After giving Florida a second thought I have decided to back Houston - like Harkorede already said motivation and payback can be a huge factor!
My 2nd team from the south and absolute longshot will be Vanderbilt - the racing punter inside me likes such odds.

Don't want an outlay of more than $100 so it will be 4x25 outrights.
My other candidates will be the Iowa State Cyclones and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Now I'm just waiting for the outrights market on Rainbet

[Jubilee58]

The NCCA men's championship basketball is an interesting league and is also one of my favorite league in the USA basketball. In the first round of the march madness 2026 , the first round is going to be very competitive but I can see clubs like Arizona and South Florida still doing well in this knockout stage because they have been doing well in the league and I still believe they will still perform very well this time around, more especially now that their performance will determine if they will move to the next stage or not.

[Slissy]

I’ll also be looking forward to the outright odds to see if I could find some odds of decent value.

The outright odds is live and as expected, it's Duke again who is a slight favorite.. Odds on Houston is not bad with 11 right now..

[jeremypwr]

The 64 teams are set and Round 1 is underway.

#1 Seed odds

Duke @ 4.40
Michigan @ 4.70
Arizona @ 4.70
Florida @ 8.00

It will be interesting to see how they move after Round 1

[Harkorede]

Duke are in trouble right now, they are currently trailing by 11 points at halftime to the 16th seed in the tournament, will they be able to bounce back or could this spark this biggest upset to kickoff the march madness ??

[jeremypwr]

Duke are in trouble right now, they are currently trailing by 11 points at halftime to the 16th seed in the tournament, will they be able to bounce back or could this spark this biggest upset to kickoff the march madness ??

I have Siena +37.5 in a crazy parlay.
Unless Duke goes on an unheard of run in the 2nd half, I think I'm safe.
If Duke loses, you're right in that it would be the biggest upset!

[Harkorede]

Duke are in trouble right now, they are currently trailing by 11 points at halftime to the 16th seed in the tournament, will they be able to bounce back or could this spark this biggest upset to kickoff the march madness ??

I have Siena +37.5 in a crazy parlay.
Unless Duke goes on an unheard of run in the 2nd half, I think I'm safe.
If Duke loses, you're right in that it would be the biggest upset!

Duke Devils survived the scare but maybe just this once, the upsets are coming in fast, the No 5 seed Wisconsin have been eliminated by High Point.

[goodpunt]

The outright odds is live and as expected, it's Duke again who is a slight favorite.. Odds on Houston is not bad with 11 right now..

Damn!!! I missed the opening of the outright odds...really dislike my time zone!
Odds for Vanderbilt looked very tasty!

The market will surely reopen after Round 1 right?

[rbynxx]

Duke are in trouble right now, they are currently trailing by 11 points at halftime to the 16th seed in the tournament, will they be able to bounce back or could this spark this biggest upset to kickoff the march madness ??

I have Siena +37.5 in a crazy parlay.
Unless Duke goes on an unheard of run in the 2nd half, I think I'm safe.
If Duke loses, you're right in that it would be the biggest upset!

Duke Devils survived the scare but maybe just this once, the upsets are coming in fast, the No 5 seed Wisconsin have been eliminated by High Point.

Was not really fan of NCAA considering I'm into favorites tbh and saw that game and between BYU too and that was a total upset. I think I'll play once it boils down to 32 or probably the top 16 in the bracket as it's more easy to pick team as it's filtered out who's best and who's not.

[Slissy]

The market will surely reopen after Round 1 right?

yeah the outright market is live again and it will be close again when the first match today starts between  Kentucky Wildcats- Santa Clara Broncos.. They also now have live market on who will reach the final and who will reach the final four 

Here are odds on 4 of the outright favorites right now..

Arizona Wildcats
4.50

Michigan Wolverines
4.75

Duke Blue Devils
5.25

Florida Gators
9.00


https://rainbet.com/sportsbook/basketball/usa/ncaa-1671176722067976192

[jeremypwr]

As expected there were a couple of upsets yesterday:

#11 VCU beat #6 North Carolina
#10 Texas A&M beat #7 Saint Mary's
#12 High Point beat #5 Wisconsin
#11 Texas beat #6 BYU
#9 Saint Louis beat #8 Georgia

Interested to see which teams get eliminated today to conclude Round 1

https://rainbet.com/sportsbook/basketball/usa/ncaa-1671176722067976192