NCAA Basketball Betting: Kansas Leads the Big 12 Pack Once Again

The 2023-2024 men's college basketball season is on the horizon, and FanDuel Sportsbook has college basketball conference betting odds available.

The Big 12 is one of three conferences to have at least three teams in the top-20 of NCAAM championship odds, so it should be a competitive year for the conference.

Here's how the odds shake out for the Big 12's regular season winner.

Kansas Jayhawks (+175)

The Kansas Jayhawks have been the Big 12 regular season winners in 18 of the last 21 seasons, and the odds to continue this dominant run are in their favor.

To start, the Jayhawks are returning with three starters from last season -- KJ Adams Jr., Kevin McCullar Jr., and Dajuan Harris Jr. Beyond the Jr.'s, they did lose starters Jalen Wilson and Gradey Dick to the NBA. But Jayhawks fans shouldn't fret; the team more than made up for their losses.

Incoming freshman guard Elmarko Jackson will join the Jayhawks starting lineup, and he's already projected to be a 2024 NBA lottery pick.

Hunter Dickinson will also join the team after transferring from Michigan, which creates a very talented and well-rounded Kansas lineup. Dickinson was ranked as the best player in the transfer portal (via 24/7 Sports). He averaged 18.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game last season and comes in with three years of Big 10 experience.

The experts seem to agree that the Jayhawks are the team to beat this season. ESPN's Way-Too-Early Top-25 has Kansas in the number one spot going into this season while KenPom gives that the number two rank (behind the Purdue Boilermakers).

All signs point to the Big 12 being Kansas' to lose, but they won't be without stiff competition.

Houston Cougars (+370)

The Houston Cougars will kick off their first season in the Big 12 next month after moving over from the American Athletic Conference, which should be an exciting transition.

Houston brought back starters Jamal Shead and J'Wan Roberts and will be returning 53.2% of their minutes (per BartTorvik), which is the second-highest percentage among Big 12 teams.

They also added LJ Cryer, who was the seventh-ranked player in the transfer portal (per 24/7 Sports). Cryer averaged 15.0 per game last season for Baylor and is projected to be a 2024 NBA draft pick. Damian Dunn, who is a senior transfer from Temple and averaged 15.3 points per game last season, will round out their starting lineup.

The Cougars shined last season on defense, posting the fifth-best adjusted defensive efficiency and allowing the second-lowest effective field goal percentage.

Only five college basketball teams (Kansas, Duke, Purdue, Michigan State, and Kentucky) have shorter odds to win the 2024 NCAA tournament than Houston.

Kansas, who as mentioned boasts the number-one rank on ESPN's list, will certainly be Houston's biggest Big 12 competition, but the Cougars don't rank far behind in ESPN's rank, coming in at the sixth spot.

Meanwhile, KenPom stamps Houston as the third-best team going into this season (right behind Kansas at the number two spot), but Jon Rothstein's ROTHSTEIN 45 puts the Cougars back at the 12th spot.

The discrepancies in rankings make sense given the unknowns and volatilities that may come with Houston's arrival in the Big 12, but either way, they should give Kansas a run for their money this season.

Texas Longhorns (+750)

The Texas Longhorns made out big last season, winning the Big 12 championship game against Kansas and making it the further (to the Elite Eight) than any other Big 12 team in the NCAA Tournament.

The are only returning 43.1% of their minutes from last season (per BartTorvik), but that does include three of last year's starters -- Tyrese Hunter, Dylan Disu, and Dillon Mitchell.

Texas added Max Abmas from the transfer portal, who was the eighth-ranked player in the portal and averaged 21.9 points per game for Oral Roberts last season. They also added Kadin Shedrick from Virginia to round out their lineup.

The standing of this team seems to be fairly unison among various rankings -- KenPom places them in the 16th spot, ROTHSTEIN 45 has them in the 17th spot, the AP Poll gives them the nod at 18th, and ESPN's Way-Too-Early rank stamps them as the 21st-best team.

The Longhorns will have to stick their head out to outdo the likes of Kansas and Houston, but they were able to surprise people late in the season last year.

Looking for more college basketball betting opportunities? Head over to FanDuel Sportsbook to check out all of the upcoming college basketball odds.

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