One of the biggest events on the sports schedule takes place this weekend with NCAA Men’s Final Four basketball in Glendale, Arizona. It’s a massive event for the best US betting sites as well.
Saturday’s national semifinals feature the Purdue Boilermakers playing the North Carolina State Wolfpack and the defending national champion Connecticut Huskies facing the Alabama Crimson Tide for the right to play in Monday’s championship game.
Millions of Americans will be glued to their TV sets when those teams battle it out. That’s especially true for the fans of the four schools that will be playing on the big stage.
The Final Four also ranks among the top sports wagering events in the United States, especially with so many states adding online wagering options in the past few years. Oddsmakers at BetMGM Sportsbook have made the Boilermakers a 9.5-point favorite over the Wolfpack in the first game on Saturday. The Huskies, meanwhile, are an 11.5-point favorite over Bama.
While all the fans are excited, some are definitely more into it than others. USBettingReport.com used Google Trends on April 1 to see which of the four remaining NCAA men’s basketball tournament fanbases are most excited for their team to have made the Final Four.
Purdue has the highest search volume of any of the fanbases, scoring a perfect 100 on the Google Trends Interest Scale in searched for “Final Four” as a phrase. N.C. State Wolfpack fans came in second with a score of 80. Crimson Tide and UConn fans round out the rankings with scores of 61 and 35, respectively. No matter what your rooting interest is, check out USBR’s legal online sports betting insight.
Most Passionate Final Four-Bound Fanbases
2024 NCAA Final Four Teams
Various US sports betting apps offer a wide range of wagers on this weekend’s games.
The level of excitement is understandable for Boilermakers fans. It has been 44 years since the school last made it this far. Purdue, over the years, has seen its share of big men dominate on the hardwood, but none have done so to the level Zach Edey has this year. The 7-foot-4 Canadian and reigning national player of the year averaged 25 points and 12.2 rebounds per game this season. He may have played his best game ever in Sunday’s Elite Eight victory over Tennessee when he scored a career-high 40 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the 72-66 win.
At FanDuel Sportsbook, Edey is the favorite to win the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player Award, with odds of +195.
Two Cinderella Runs, One Reigning Champ
You have to go back 41 years for the last time the Wolfpack reached the Final Four. Coach Jim Valvano led his upstart squad on a Cinderella run that culminated with a buzzer-beating victory over heavy favorite Houston in the 1983 championship game. This season, Kevin Keats’ team is following a similar trajectory. After finishing the regular season with four straight losses, the Pack reeled off five wins in as many days to win the ACC Tournament and steal a bid into the Big Dance. They’ve kept it going with four more during March Madness, including three against higher-seeded teams.
Oddsmakers, however, believe midnight will come Saturday for this Cinderella squad. Caesars Sportsbook lists them at +1500 to win the title on Monday.
Alabama fans are used to seeing their football team in that sport’s national semifinals, but Nate Oats will take the Crimson Tide basketball team to the Final Four for the first time. They happen to be the longest shot on the Caesars futures board to win the title Monday, having odds of +1800.
Maybe UConn fans are just used to seeing their team make the Final Four. This year marks the seventh time the Huskies have reached this stage in the tournament, and all of those appearances have occurred since 1999. If they win Monday, the Huskies will join North Carolina in a tie for third place all-time with six national titles.
DraftKings Sportsbook likes their chances of joining the Tar Heels. UConn is the favorite to win the championship at -195.
USA Today photo by Michael Chow/The Republic
