Majors vs. Mid-Majors in Sweet Sixteen March Madness Odds

March Madness odds in the Sweet Sixteen seem to be all about the major conference teams facing mid-major teams. March Madness betting begins on Thursday in the Sweet Sixteen with Big East power Syracuse facing Butler.

March Madness odds favor all of the major teams in their Sweet Sixteen matchups.  Syracuse is favored against Butler on Thursday while Kansas State is favored against Xavier.  Also on Thursday in March Madness betting it is Kentucky favored against Cornell and West Virginia favored against Washington.  The Ivy League is not considered a mid-major but Kentucky is the power team in that matchup.  The Pac-10 is also not a mid-major conference but this season the conference was really no better than a mid-major so it is not surprising to see West Virginia favored against Washington in March Madness odds.

Friday has two more games where major conference teams are favored against mid-majors.  It is Michigan State favored against Northern Iowa and Baylor favored against St. Mary’s.  The other two games on Friday in the Sweet Sixteen have Duke favored against Purdue and Ohio State favored against Tennessee.

The Sweet Sixteen matchups feature a lot of interesting games.  Cornell is the Cinderella story but they face the powerful Kentucky Wildcats.  Cornell is not a fluke team as they rolled in the first two round of the NCAA Tournament.  Kentucky was even more impressive in their two wins.

St. Mary’s is considered another of the Cinderella teams and they are a mid-major team. They have a very impressive player in Omar Samhan. He is averaging 30.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. He has a very tough matchup against Baylor’s Ekpe Edoh. Butler is not considered a Cinderella anymore but they are definite underdogs in the game against Syracuse.

Looking at the Sweet Sixteen in terms of major conferences, only the ACC and Pac-10 have just one team in the dance. The Big Ten has three teams while The Big 12, Big East and SEC each have two.  Three number one seeds remain (Kentucky, Syracuse and Duke) and three number two seeds (Kansas State, Ohio State and West Virginia) are still alive. There is only one number three seed still alive in Baylor and one number four seed in Purdue. There are two fives (Michigan State, Butler), two number six seeds (Tennessee, Xavier), ninth seeded Northern Iowa, 10th seeded St. Mary’s, 11th seeded Washington and 12th-seeded Cornell.

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