It has become pretty clear that college football is running things when it comes to college athletics; college basketball is also a huge moneymaker as well. Unfortunately, college basketball doesn’t really have any say when it comes to what goes on with conferences, and things have started to become an absolute mess.
The Pac-12 Conference is going to fold at the conclusion of this year as there will be new superconferences throughout the country. The ACC and Big Ten Conferences are going to get much bigger as they have swallowed up teams from the Pac-12.
While many are in agreement that this is going to improve the overall product of college football, it’s going to kill basketball. The NCAA Tournament selection committee is going to find it nearly impossible to select teams as some conferences will have 12-15 worthy teams.
Check out the full NCAAB 2023 odds over on Bookmaker
More Movement in Pac-12
There has been a mass exodus from the Pac-12 Conference over the past 12 months, and everything has been about money and television exposure. Some of those moves can be pretty easily explained, but we now have conferences that span coast to coast.
The ACC and Big Ten are going to have to change up how they schedule basketball games, as teams can’t be traveling across the country in the middle of the week. It was just announced that the ACC has agreed to add California, Stanford, and SMU, as this league is not only looking to steal from the Pac-12 but also looking elsewhere.
Since the Pac-12 is likely going to fold, that is going to create even more movement in the future. A lot of people are against expansion when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, but something is going to have to be done to the current format to make things work moving forward.
Current Odds to Win Title
None of these changes are going to impact the 2023-24 college basketball season, but they will have an impact in 2024 and beyond. Betting odds to win the championship this year are available, but they could look much different after this year.
Here is a brief look at the current betting favorites to win the NCAA Championship and where those schools will be heading moving forward.
Kansas is the betting favorite to win the title this season at +900 at BetOnline, and they could be in a good spot moving forward. With Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC after this year, that’s going to take away some talent from the conference.
Purdue and Kentucky are the next teams on the list heading into 2023-24, and those teams won’t be going anywhere. Life for each team will be much different moving forward, though, as the Big Ten and SEC are going to look much different.
If we continue down the list of betting favorites, you are going to see that it’s mostly blue blood basketball programs. Those schools aren’t going to be changing conferences anytime soon, but things will still get tougher on them with the addition of new teams.
We still have more than 12 months before we really start to worry about college basketball in 2024-25, but it’s clear that things are going to be changing.
