Who are the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament?

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz and Krysten Peek run down the list of betting favorites and examine a pair of SEC teams after the 2024 bracket is revealed.

Video Transcript

JASON FITZ: The NCAA tournament bracket is revealed. And that means everybody's going to be filling out brackets, and also, some people might be dabbling, like I do, Kristin Peek.

And I'm just going to tell you, KP, some of the numbers moved drastically in an interesting way. We've got some odds here on the opportunity to win the championship, right? So you got Connecticut, 4 to 1. Everybody sort of understands they're the favorite. You got some others. Houston, 6 to 1. I understand this.

But there's some long shots here that I think are interesting, especially Auburn at 18 to 1. That's plus 1800. What do you think of that?

KRYSTEN PEEK: Listen, the last time Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers won the SEC championship, they went on and they made a storming run through the tournament and made it all the way to the Final Four. And there are a lot of similarities in this team and the 2019 team. You got Johni Broome, who's been playing completely unbelievably down the stretch. KD Johnson and Aden Holloway in the backcourt. And when you have the mixture of athleticism that they had, the guard play, and coaching--

I think that we're looking at UConn, right, and a team is going to have to play their best basketball to beat them. I think Auburn could be that team that could beat them to come out of the East region, and at least make the Final Four, and maybe win the championship.

JASON FITZ: All right. So from a positive note of the SEC, I'll give you a negative one. Because I see Tennessee here at 15 to 1. I can't say this loud enough. I am out on the Vols to be able to win the championship this year. And it's because they're so one-dimensional. Dalton Knecht is absolutely incredible and has been one of the best stories in college basketball this year.

Taking nothing away from that, what did we see in the SEC tournament? If he has even the slightest off day, Tennessee got absolutely clobbered in that game. They don't have a second option. And for me, when you're talking about the tournament, you're talking about quick turnaround in games. You're talking about new arenas, new experiences, everything feels just a little bit different. When you rely on one guy that is so field-oriented, I don't think there's any reason, even at 15 to 1, as great as those odds are, I don't think there's any chance Tennessee is getting this title this year.

And it's not because Dalton Knecht isn't great. It's because he's so great that he's the only player that they've figured out how to rely on. So good and bad from the SEC, KP.

Be sure to get in on the action with Yahoo's Bracket Madness Game for both the men's and the women's tournaments. You could win $25,000 in our Best Bracket Contest. It's free to play so head to Yahoo.com/tourney-- that's Yahoo.com/tourney to sign up.