{"id":199690,"date":"2026-03-20T21:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199690\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:32:09","slug":"march-madness-2026-picks-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/199690\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness 2026 picks, odds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting-editorial-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>Florida opens the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting\/march-madness-odds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NCAA Tournament<\/a> as a massive favorite over Prairie View A&amp;M in a game that the Gators should be able to handle with ease.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a minor miracle the Panthers have even made it this far.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After finishing just 19-17 overall and 9-9 in-conference in the regular season, Prairie View had to make an unlikely run as the No. 8 seed in the SWAC tournament just to punch its ticket to March Madness.<\/p>\n<p>Then, the Panthers stayed alive in the First Four, knocking off Lehigh 67-55 on Wednesday thanks to 25 points from Dontae Horne for the program\u2019s first-ever NCAA Tournament win.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m betting the Cinderella run ends here, with the defending champs winning a classic 1-16 blowout that kicks off what should be a long tournament run.<\/p>\n<p>The mismatch shows up not only in the massive spread, but in the power ratings too, with Florida sitting No. 4 at KenPom and Prairie View A&amp;M down at No. 280.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The latter is, by far, the lowest of any team in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38837587\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MT1USATODAY28493853-1617029864-3.jpg\" alt=\"A Florida player in a white and blue jersey points a finger up.\" class=\"wp-image-38837587\"  \/>Florida Gators guard Xaivian Lee (1) reacts after a made three point basket against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second half at Bridgestone Arena.  IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>The Gators\u2019 loss in the SEC semifinal will be a blessing for their national title chances, and Prairie View A&amp;M comes into the game on a high after their recent run.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No. 16 seeds coming off a First Four win have lost by an average of 23 points \u2013 and often as much as 40-plus \u2013 since the extra games came into the picture in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>That list included many more talented teams than the out-of-nowhere Panthers.<\/p>\n<p>Betting on College Basketball? <\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let Duke\u2019s nail-biter against Siena scare you off.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is a much worse No. 16 seed team.<\/p>\n<p>The play: Florida -34.5 (-115, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/article\/betmgm-sign-up-offer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BetMGM Sportsbook<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n<p>Dylan Svoboda is a versatile writer and analyst across many sports. He\u2019s particularly knowledgeable about the big three \u2014 MLB, the NFL and the NBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4640,8294,43655,28,2530,30,29,88351,110,5775,5776],"class_list":["post-199690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-betting","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-march-madness-2026","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}