There might not be a more difficult game to bet on during the First Round of the NCAA Tournament that the No. 9 vs. No. 8 seed matchups in each region.
Usually you can toss out the seeding here since these teams could switch rankings and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. If your squad finds itself in this game, it’s because they’re good enough to make a run and have enough flaws to question their resume to begin with.
Here at BetFTW, we want to make betting on these four games a little easier—and a lot more enticing—so we called up our pals at Tipico Sportsbook to give us some better odds.
Presenting: BetFTW’s Dressed to the Nines Boost. You can now parlay all four No. 9 seeds to win their First Round matchup with odds boosted to +2000. A max bet of $20 would payout $420 total.
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This year’s No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchups feature Boise St-Memphis, North Carolina-Marquette, Creighton-San Diego State and Seton Hall-TCU.
To collect on the boost, we need TCU, Creighton, Marquette and Memphis to win straight up. It’s certainly not impossible. No. 9 seeds have won 73 of 144 games since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. More than half of those games were decided by fewer than 10 points.
These are true toss-ups with the lower-ranked team an underdog in name only. For that reason alone, we’re riding with the No. 9 seeds and grabbing these odds while we can.
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