NCAA Basketball Picks & Predictions

In this guide, we’ll go over some of the information and strategies that you need to know, including free college basketball picks, so that you can maximize your chances of success throughout the season and into the March tournament. 

2026 College Basketball: Overview and NCAA Basketball Picks

When betting on College Basketball, most legal states only permit you to bet on the outcome of games, such as money lines and point spreads, or the total points scored in a game.

With that, individual props regarding a player’s performance are typically not allowed, and the only props you can bet on revolve around how many points any one team will score in a game.

Future bets are also available regarding College Basketball betting, which typically include National Championship bets or betting on a team to make the Final Four.

The main issue with a College Basketball future bet is that it ties up your bankroll until the event you bet on is concluded. Further, at this point in the season, the odds have adjusted significantly compared to the early part of the season.

So while making a NCAA tournament bracket is great, one of the best ways to bet on the tournament is by betting on individual games or the tournament winner. Get ready to rock this year with our basketball predictions.

Place your NCAA bets at FanDuel

NCAAB Picks: Who will be the National Champion in 2026?

With the College Basketball season entering its final stretch, now is the time to look at who should be considered a ‘contender’ and who should be considered a ‘pretender’ heading into the NCAA Tournament. There are many ways to do this, the first by looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the top teams. For this, we want to look at how consistently a team scores, as well as, how well they play defense.

If a team is consistently scoring 80+ points per game, but is allowing 80+ points per game, they are a team you probably want to avoid betting on. Not being able to make defensive stops has doomed some of the best teams in the past; therefore, we want to find a team that is near the top both offensively and defensively.

Another factor to consider is a team's consistency. If a team constantly wins three, loses two, wins four, etc., that tells us they are going to have trouble winning six in a row to be crowned National Champions.

While 68 teams will make the NCAA Tournament field, only a handful should be considered legitimate title contenders. With that, there are many factors to consider before making your National Champion future bets.

The first being the age of the team. Generally speaking, teams with an older roster are more likely to compete for a National Championship. This is because they have played with each other for several years. That being said, teams such as Duke, which typically have a younger roster, are just as likely to win a National Championship because they have the best players.

Another factor to consider is the experience of the head coach. A lot of the time, games in the NCAA tournament can be won or lost based on the decision-making and game plans from the head coach. 

Therefore, teams that have a head coach with NCAA tournament experience are more likely to take their team further, compared to teams with a head coach who has little to no NCAA tournament experience. 

Our College Basketball National Champion: Michigan

2026 National Champion Futures

• Michigan +155
• Arizona +175
• Illinois +430
• Connecticut +700

Odds provided by FanDuel.

Place your NCAA bets at FanDuel

March Basketball Picks: How to Make Reliable NCAA Basketball Picks

If you’re looking to place bets during the tournament, you need to know what you’re betting. In some states, that’s tricky, because college sports come with restrictions that don’t exist in professional sports.

For example, in the pros, if you want to bet on the Indiana Pacers, you’ll see every starter’s points, rebounds, assists, blocks and more stats as options for prop betting. If you want to bet on Purdue, none of that will be there. Many states do not allow any prop bets on college games. Your only prop betting option is team totals, because that’s not an individual play. Some states also don’t allow you to bet on teams in that state. In New Jersey, for example, no bets are allowed on in-state college teams. When Princeton, Saint Peter’s and Fairleigh Dickinson captured the imagination of the nation in 2022 and 2023, bettors in their home states were out of luck because no bets were offered on any of their games.

However, outside of that, the standard basketball bets of spread betting, totals, and betting by half (college basketball is played by halves, not quarters, so quarters betting isn’t a thing) will be available. You can place bets on futures before or after the field is announced on March 15th. The first four games will take place on March 17th and 18th, and the national championship game will take place on April 6th. You’ll have 67 games available to bet over three weeks, so you’ll want to know the teams as well as possible.

Place your NCAA bets at DraftKings

How to Bet on College Basketball

If you’re looking to place bets on college basketball this season, you need to know what you’re betting. Over the past few years, some states have moved to add restrictions to college sports that don’t exist in professional sports. These are designed to prevent the possibility of players being influenced by nefarious bettors.

For example, in the pros, there aren’t any restrictions on your bets. If you want to bet on the Memphis Grizzlies, you’ll see each player’s stats and information to bet on just about any statistic happening. When betting on the Tennessee Volunteers, you won’t see prop plays in most states. You can bet on the Vols to score a certain number of points in the first half, or for the entire game, but individual stats won’t be available to you.  

In other states, you can’t bet on a college game that involves an in-state team. New Jersey is infamous for this: it doesn’t allow any bets on teams that call the Garden State home. Any other college game is fair game in New Jersey, but you’ll never be able to bet on Rutgers, Seton Hall or Saint Peter’s in the state. 

Outside of that, the standard basketball bets of spreads, totals and betting by half are available. In men’s college basketball, the game is divided into halves, while women’s games are divided into quarters. If women’s college basketball betting is offered, you’ll be able to bet on individual quarter spreads and totals.

Those located in a state where legal betting is allowed will be able to take advantage of amazing opportunities to bet on NCAA basketball. Once a trusted betting site has been selected, the process of placing a wager is pretty simple.

Our Top 3 NCAA Betting Tips

1. Access the account and head to the basketball section.

Here, the NCAA match will be listed, along with the many options for bets during the season. Given the enormous popularity of college basketball, most sportsbooks will even have a giant banner on the home page which you can click to quickly access during the season.

Open an account now

2. Shop around (Shop!)

If you see a betting line you'd like to take, we strongly advise doing a little research to make sure you're getting the best deal on odds. Once you've found a bet that has good odds, select a bet amount, and add the bet to the bet slip. Once all selections have been made, the bets will become live. Once games come to an end, every bet will be settled and payouts will be automatically credited to the account.

3. Rinse and Repeat

Now that you've (hopefully) cashed in on that underdog pick, get ready to repeat the process and do a little odds-shopping for your next bet! Be sure to check out some of the great NCAA basketball bets that can be enjoyed online.

What else should you know about College Basketball betting?

Even those who have never placed an bet with an online sportsbook have heard of the famous bracket. Can you place a bet on your bracket? How does the bracket work? In which states can you place a college basketball or bracket bet? Let's have a look: 

NCAA basketball Bracket Betting

Placing a bet on an NCAA basketball bracket contest is one of the most common ways to bet on this college basketball tournament. With bracket betting, just fill out the bracket, choosing a winner for each game that will be played. Once selections are made, enter the bracket bets into a paid contest. A top-rated NCAA basketball betting site will offer great payouts. Big contests will typically offer payouts to the top 15% and the best bracket will receive the largest share.

A NCAA basketball bracket will begin with 64 college teams, so there are 63 games to place a bet on. For every correct selection, points will be earned. For each tourney round played, the points that can be earned will increase. With 7 rounds of betting in the NCAA tournament, there are some super chances to rack up points. The bettors with the most accumulated points at the end of the tournament will receive payouts from the prize pool. Using listed betting odds at a betting site is a good way to make NCAA basketball bracket decisions.

It is all about who can predict the most results of games that are played during the NCAAB tournament.

An important note before continuing this online NCAA basketball betting guide- many states have restrictions on college sports betting which unfortunately keeps thousands of bettors from participating in one of the most thrilling betting events of the year. Be sure to check your state's legal sports betting rules before gearing up to place your NCAAB tournament bets. 

NCAA Live Betting

Get the most excitement from online betting by choosing betting sites that feature Live Betting. With this, a bet can be placed in real time and there are different betting options offered. With live bets, the betting odds are always being updated and a bet can be placed right up until the end of a game. The best profits can be earned by placing a bet later in a basketball game, especially if one team is showing a clear advantage. 

Live betting will become even more exhilarating as the tournament progresses. Betting on the Final Four is very common and the odds for these games can be among the best in sports. Be sure to check the odds at various sports betting apps or compare top NCAA basketball betting sites online. Live bets on Elite 8 and Final Four tournament games will provide the best betting experience.

Place your NCAA bets at DraftKings

College Basketball Betting Tips for Beginner Bettors

Now’s a great time to bet on college basketball and get yourself prepared for later in the year. If you start betting on college basketball in December and January, you’ll give yourself a much better base of information for when the games really matter most in March. If you're a basketball guru, you'll find lots of info on our page dedicated to NBA picks and predictions!

Tip #1: Bet the Teams You Know Well

With 364 men’s teams and 362 women’s teams, there are a ton of options for betting each day during the college basketball season. That means it’s easy for the sportsbooks to get overwhelmed, and it’s even easier for you to get overwhelmed. The best strategy is to find teams you watch regularly and learn what they do well. Betting the same teams over and over will help you learn how to best bet their games.

Tip #2: Know The Trends

If a team isn’t playing well at the moment, now might not be the time to back them. Knowing the trends are key for ats bets and can be a sign that something is wrong with the team’s chemistry at the moment, or that there’s an issue with a star player. Remember, college basketball is played by 18 to 22-year-olds, and players at that age can have mental ebbs and flows that can’t be explained by numbers alone. Knowing the trends can help you spot these areas.

Place your NCAA bets at FanDuel

Tip #3: Check Strengths And Weaknesses

Knowing how a team likes to play can give you a sense of how it will play. For example, a team like Connecticut loves to swarm its opponents with stiff defense and force them to use the entire shot clock when they have the ball. That, in turn, keeps their scores down and puts unders in play...unless they face a team that can shoot from outside. Knowing each team’s strengths and potential counters makes a big difference.

Tip #4: Watch Smaller Schools

These days, every game is televised somewhere. Small schools can be tough for sportsbooks because they aren’t going to invest a lot of time or money in games that won’t get attention. But you can get an advantage by getting to know the teams in a small league well. If you live in a league’s geographical footprint, you might see a lot of those teams. That gives you an advantage, because you can learn exactly how they play better than the sportsbooks do.

Tip #5: Look At the Coaches

Coaches make a big difference in how they manage games. Knowing how a coach is likely to play out the endgame and what he’ll emphasize gives you the best chance to make the right selection.

Place your NCAA bets at DraftKings

What not to do for College Basketball Predictions

The worst thing you can do is overlook key information. Giving yourself as much knowledge as possible gives you the best chance to win your bet, so make sure to take a hard look at relevant information. Here are a few things you really don’t want to do.

• Bet heavily without looking at injuries: Injuries change how a team plays. If a key player is missing, think twice before you bet on that team to do anything.
• Forget the crowd: Teams playing at home get the crowd on their side. Some teams are much better at home and pull off key wins on their home floor. If you hear the phrase “home-court hero”, be careful betting against them on their home floor.
• Blindly bet favorites: Favorites don’t always win. Top-ranked teams go down to lesser ones all the time. Don’t just back the team ranked higher without thinking about it.
• Betting teams you don’t know: Uninformed decisions can come back to burn you. Make sure you know what a team likes to do and what its weaknesses are before you bet.
• Packing a parlay: Parlay bets are hard. Don’t chase your losses by going big on a parlay; you’ll usually only make things worse.
• Not comparing odds: Comparing sportsbooks makes a big difference. -120 vs. -110 might not seem like a big change, but it really adds up over time. Make sure to get the right number whenever you play a bet.

Stats to Consider for College Basketball Predictions

Most sports betting experts agree that betting on sports requires knowledge of statistics. Here are some of the numbers to keep in mind, as recorded during the 2025-2026 College Basketball season:

• Home Winning Percentage: ~67.31%
• Away Winning Percentage: ~36.23%
• Average Points Scored by a Team: 73.8 Points per Game
• Average Points Allowed by a Team: 72.2 Points per Game
• Average Field Goal Percentage by a Team: 44.66% 
• Average 3-Point Percentage by a Team: 33.96%
• Average Free Throw Percentage by a Team: 71.98%
• Average Rebounds by a Team: 35.22 Rebounds per Game
• Average Offensive Rebounds by a Team: 10.52 Offensive Rebounds per Game
• Average Defensive Rebounds by a Team: 24.69 Defensive Rebounds per Game
• Average Assists by a Team: 13.66 Assists per Game
• Average Steals by a Team: 6.83 Steals per Game
• Average Blocks by a Team: 3.35 Blocks per Game
• Average Turnovers by a Team: 11.80 Turnovers per Game
• Average Fouls by a Team: 16.84 Fouls per Game

When betting on College Basketball, some of these statistics will be more important than others, such as the ‘home team winning percentage’ or ‘average points scored/allowed by a team per game’. 

However, these numbers will vary wildly depending on the teams involved in the game you are betting on. In that case, be sure to research both teams extensively to give yourself the best chance to cash your ticket!

Place your NCAA bets at DraftKings

Conclusion: How to Get Your College Basketball Predictions Right?

Trusting your process and information is by far the smartest thing that you can do when betting on college basketball. Not every bet will go your way, but knowing the teams well and making smart wagers will give you the best chance to maximize your wins. 

Make sure to stay calm and stick to your strategies, regardless of your results. You don’t want to bet too big on any one game, and you don’t want to change things up drastically after one bad night. Consistency is the key to winning at sports betting and finding those lesser-known winners.

If you need information, we’ve got you covered with some of the deepest information in the industry. Our experts use analytics, statistics, and their own insights to provide you with college basketball picks today and for each game in the tournament. We know where to find next-gen statistics that tell you things about how fast a team likes to play, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what it’s most likely to do against a given opponent. When you check out our free website, you can trust that you’re getting the best possible information, which will give you the best chance to nail your college basketball bets. 

With the right information, you’ll be ready to make smart plays and set yourself up to really enjoy the college basketball season.

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