The college basketball betting season has reached its midway point, and now talk of March Madness can finally start up. After the first 20 games of the season, things are seemingly the way they should be, as the strongest teams of the Power Six Conferences are atop the AP 25 standings. The biggest shock thus far in the year, is top ranked Syracuse sitting at 20 wins and no losses. We’ve always known that Syracuse has been a good price per head wager, but to go undefeated through the first 20 games is a bit surprising. Today, we’ll look at which team has the best shot at a March Madness title.

March Madness, like the playoffs in the big four major sports, is a time of year, in which literally anything can happen. As we saw in the wild card round of the NFL playoffs, the Denver Broncos and New York Giants were just as deserving of their playoff spots as the Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers. While it could be suggested that the Broncos dream season was destined to come to an abrupt halt, the New York Giants appear to be the real deal. As it relates to the March Madness tournament, usually one team pulls a Broncos and squeaks into the tournament then overachieves, while another hits their stride right as the bookie software tournament gets under way.

With that in mind, two teams of particular interest to us in the March Madness Tournament will be the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans. For all intents and purposes, we’ll call the Spartans our Denver Broncos, and the Wolverines our New York Giants. That is to say, the Spartans who currently sit 23^rd in the NCAA rankings, are a team that appears to be overachieving. They don’t have one specific star, but their program has been good enough to maintain a high ranking. On the other side of things, Tim Hardaway Jr. who like Eli Manning, has carried his team this season leads the Wolverines.

When looking at both teams, it really depends which of our colleagues you want to agree with, for who should fair better. Firstly, colleagues from Sports Illustrated have the Spartans as a final four pick, with the Wolverines coming in as a dark horse pick if the Spartans should flop. Conversely, at a couple other colleagues early projections, they have the Wolverines and Spartans swapping positions.

In our opinion, the final four will be Ohio State, Kansas, Syracuse and Michigan. Michigan will go head to head with the nation’s best team in Syracuse, while Ohio State will take on Kansas. For Michigan, facing Syracuse in the final four will be eerily similar to facing Duke a season ago, in that many will expect them to be destroyed, but they will take the Orange to the limit. As we noted earlier, Tim Hardaway Jr. who is a freshman and a game changer for the club leads Michigan. For that reason, we really believe Hardaway Jr. can be the difference between losing to Syracuse and pulling off a mammoth of an upset, before beating Kansas for the National Title.

Montreal Canadiens fans may be having a tough season with their team on the ice, but some may alleviate their stress with some hockey betting and there are a few different types that they may run into while perusing their online sportsbook.

Money Line – The easiest way to wager and one that everyone, from casual fans to experienced players that use price per head systems, can start with. Essentially, you have a favorite (for example, -135) and an underdog (+115), and you would win $100 on a bet of $135, but $115 on a $100 wager.

Puck Line – The puck line is similar to a spread in that a team has to win by a certain amount of goals, but it changes the money line odds to make it so that the favorite has to win by a blowout for you to win, but an underdog just has to keep it close.

Regulation Line – Another spin-off of the money line, this is a game that has to be decided in regulation; if you go to overtime and/or the shootout, you lose.

Totals – This is when you wager on the total amount of goals in a certain game, betting on the over or under. There is also the Grand Salami, which is the total amount of goals that will be scored in all games on a given day in the NHL.

Props/Futures – Props are wagers that don’t have to do with the result of the game, but what will happen with an individual player (will Steven Stamkos score over/under 1.5 goals). Futures are more of a long term online wagering option, such as Stanley Cup winners.