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Xavier is not the bettor's favorite for national champion

You can make good money by laying a small sum on Xavier to win it all. Provided, of course, that they actually do win it all.

I'm told this has something to do with betting. Beats me.
I'm told this has something to do with betting. Beats me.
Alan Crowhurst
School Open Current
Kentucky 5/1 7/2
Arizona 16/1 9/1
Wisconsin 12/1 9/1
Duke 9/1 12/1
North Carolina 16/1 12/1
Kansas 14/1 18/1
Florida 16/1 20/1
Gonzaga 40/1 25/1
Iowa State 33/1 25/1
Louisville 25/1 25/1
Texas 33/1 25/1
Villanova 25/1 28/1
Wichita State 28/1 28/1
Michigan 33/1 33/1
Michigan State 25/1 33/1
Syracuse 33/1 40/1
VCU 40/1 40/1
Virginia 33/1 40/1
Ohio State 50/1 50/1
San Diego State 66/1 50/1
SMU 33/1 50/1
UConn 66/1 50/1
Iowa 66/1 66/1
Oklahoma 40/1 66/1
UCLA 50/1 66/1
Pittsburgh 100/1 75/1
Arkansas 100/1 100/1
Baylor 75/1 100/1
Florida State 100/1 100/1
Georgetown 100/1 100/1
Harvard 100/1 100/1
Indiana 100/1 100/1
Kansas State 100/1 100/1
Marquette 100/1 100/1
Maryland 100/1 100/1
Memphis 100/1 100/1
Miami FL 66/1 100/1
Minnesota 100/1 100/1
Nebraska 66/1 100/1
Notre Dame 150/1 100/1
Oregon 50/1 100/1
Seton Hall 100/1 100/1
St. Louis 100/1 100/1
Stanford 100/1 100/1
Tennessee 100/1 100/1
Cincinnati 100/1 150/1
Providence 150/1 150/1
UNLV 100/1 150/1
Alabama 200/1 200/1
Colorado 75/1 200/1
Dayton 100/1 200/1
Georgia 100/1 200/1
Illinois 150/1 200/1
Missouri 100/1 200/1
NC State 150/1 200/1
New Mexico 200/1 200/1
Oklahoma State 100/1 200/1
St. John's 150/1 200/1
Xavier 250/1 250/1
Arizona State 100/1 300/1
Auburn Off 300/1
BYU 300/1 300/1
California 200/1 300/1
Clemson 200/1 300/1
Colorado State 300/1 300/1
Creighton 200/1 300/1
George Washington 200/1 300/1
Georgia Tech 200/1 300/1
LSU 100/1 300/1
Ole Miss 150/1 300/1
Purdue 200/1 300/1
South Carolina 300/1 300/1
Texas A&M 500/1 300/1
UMass 150/1 300/1
USC 200/1 300/1
Vanderbilt 250/1 300/1
Boston College 500/1 500/1
Butler 500/1 500/1
DePaul 500/1 500/1
LaSalle 300/1 500/1
Penn State 300/1 500/1
Richmond 500/1 500/1
St. Joe's 300/1 500/1
Texas Tech 500/1 500/1
Virginia Tech 300/1 500/1
Wake Forest 300/1 500/1
Washington 300/1 500/1
West Virginia 200/1 500/1

I'll admit right off that I don't know anything about betting. I don't know if Jesuits are supposed to do it; I don't even know where you can do it legally in the US (maybe just Vegas? Beats me). So why do I even mention the betting odds?

Money, more than anything else, tells us what people actually think. Metrics like the Pomeroy ratings have trouble accounting for known but unquantifiable entities, like freshman and transfers. Polls can be skewed by all sorts of conscious and unconscious biases. Betting represents people's actual best efforts to project what will happen; nobody is throwing money away to prove a point.

What does this mean for Xavier? One of our Twitter followers already knows: