So you thought survivor pools only applied to the NFL season? On the contrary, survivor contests are widely popular for the NCAA Tournament. An NCAA Tournament survivor pool offers an alternative way for those whose brackets habitually get busted early to stay involved in the action.
Much like the NFL version, NCAA Tournament survivor pools require one to pick one team each round, and once you select a team, you cannot use them again. However, the similarities end there, as the NCAA version’s strategies differ vastly.
One needs to remember that you could lose your entry without ever making a losing pick, but instead run out of teams from which to choose. All teams in NFL survivor pools are available for selection except the ones already chosen. In NCAA Tournament survivor pools, as teams get eliminated, the collection of teams shrinks.
Thus, if you make it to the National Championship unscathed, but the two teams are Duke and Arizona, you are out if you have already used both. That is just one example of a different thinking process for navigating these tricky contests.
Throughout the tournament, one has to make eight picks:
- Two for the First Round (one for each day)
- Two for the Second Round (one for each day)
- One for the Sweet 16
- One for the Elite Eight
- One for the Final Four
- One for the National Championship.
Each round, we will provide our analysis broken down by the following categories: Best Picks, Favorites on Upset Alert and Teams to Save for Later.
- NCAA Tournament Odds
- NCAA Tournament Pick’Em Contest
- NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket Optimizer
- NCAA Tournament Betting Trends
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NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool Guide: Round 1 (Thursday)
Here is a list of odds for all the favorites to win their Round 1 matchups on Thursday. Be sure to check out the folks at PoolGenius as well for their NCAA survivor data.
Round 1 Odds
(Odds courtesy of the BettingPros Consensus Tool)
Best Picks
- Nebraska (-1000)
- Arkansas (-1401)
- Gonzaga (-5000)
Nebraska Cornhuskers
If you are scorned by the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ lack of NCAA Tournament success, that should be thrown out the window right now (didn’t we just see Indiana win a National Championship in football?).
Fred Hoiberg’s team started the season 20-0, spent much of the year in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll, and should prove to be too much for a Troy team that ranks in the bottom 30 of the country in bench minutes. Nebraska is my strongest survivor pool pick for Thursday, as it has just a 42.9% win percentage in the second round, with only diminishing value from there.
Arkansas Razorbacks
The Arkansas Razorbacks are a little riskier of a pick than Nebraska in only the fact that they are more likely to make a deeper run and can be used later, i.e., if it meets Wisconsin in the Round of 32. The SEC Tournament champions aren’t as likely to be one-and-done.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are another team that could easily fall under the “teams that should be saved for later use” section, especially because of their tournament experience. But I’d be too worried about a potential Round of 32 matchup with BYU, where AJ Dybantsa could take over to confidently use the Bulldogs in any survivor pool round except this one.
Favorites on Upset Alert
- Vanderbilt (-650)
- Wisconsin (-500)
- Louisville (-225)
- Saint Mary’s (-162)
- Georgia (-160)
- Ohio State (-140)
- North Carolina (-140)
- BYU (Odds N/A)
Teams to Save for Later
- Duke (-100000)
- Illinois (-10000)
- Houston (-10000)
- Michigan State (-2000)
- Michigan (Odds N/A)
Duke, Illinois, Houston, Michigan State and Michigan are all, at the very least, Elite 8 contenders. While no team from this list is in danger of a first-round upset, keep them handy for the later rounds when they are still prohibitive favorites while fewer teams are available to choose from.
Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.