The beginning of conference play in the NCAA also coincides with the start of the NBA preseason and regular season. This early season in the NCAA has been rife with upsets and games that were counterintuitive to what we know about the teams involved. There are upsets every year without fail in the NCAA but this season we have seen historically strong teams struggle with what normally would be considered weaker teams. It’s tough to say whether it’s been the fits and starts associated with COVID or the influx of talent migrating to smaller schools looking to increase their level of impact but the sure thing has not been the sure thing as of late.
The NBA generally proves to be a much more consistent model in this regard, strong teams continue to be strong teams. It’s a much less volatile league, even with free agency, max contracts and the building of so-called super teams – the general consensus is that those results take a while to show themselves in terms of results and the teams that were good last year will most likely continue to be good.
There are plenty of other factors when handicapping both NCAA and NBA basketball. Sportsbooks are less familiar with NCAA vs NBA Teams. The research that goes into betting on college basketball is a much more granular endeavor and there are much more to account for in terms of variables. Sports fans in general, with the state of the world at large, even with the altered schedule and the stops and starts are just happy there is a season to have. Let the games begin!!
