Expectations are high for the Purdue Boilermakers going into the season, ranked No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll for the first time, and bookmakers are giving them the added pressure of being preseason national championship favorites.
Purdue is the consensus favorite to win the national championship ahead of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season, showing +850 odds at ESPN BET. Last season’s runners-up, the Houston Cougars, are the consensus second-favorites at +1000 at ESPN BET, with Duke (+1100), UConn (+1200) and Kentucky (+1500) rounding out the top five.
Purdue didn’t open as the favorite around the time of the 2025 national championship game in April, but a productive offseason and hype around a talented team, led by Wooden Award preseason favorite Braden Smith (+400), has created a groundswell of support: The Boilermakers have garnered the highest share of national championship handle at both ESPN BET and BetMGM.
Florida Gators, come into the 2025-26 campaign with +1600 odds, sixth on ESPN BET’s odds board, which is a marked improvement over the +6000 they had going into last season. This season’s Gators have attracted only moderate action from bettors, but bookmakers will be on the lookout for a longer team on the board that could make a run to favorite status with early impressive play like Florida did last season.
«Most years, there is a sleeper team out there that wasn’t expected to do well and they’ll play really well early on,» said Berbert. «So it’s really important, just on a day-to-day trading basis, to be able to spot these teams when they’re exceeding expectations and to not be slow to react, especially in the futures market.»
