College World Series Odds: Futures Market for NCAA Baseball Tournament

The NCAA Baseball Tournament has gone completely off the rails this year. A wild regional round eliminated seven host seeds, including No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Texas.

Many of the public’s favorite betting targets are still alive and hosting a Super Regional this week, including No. 3 Arkansas and No. 6 LSU. 

But between Texas A&M’s failure to make the field of 64 and the collective disappointment of the Commodores and Longhorns, more than one-sixth of championship tickets at BetMGM have already been burned just on those three teams alone.

Odds to Win College World Series

College World Series Prediction: Who Will Win the NCAA Baseball Championship This Year?

Based on the current futures market, the Arkansas Razorbacks have an implied 33.3% chance to win the 2025 College World Series.

College World Series Odds: Analyzing the Final Eight

The SEC has won five straight College World Series, and it may very well win a sixth with Arkansas playing this well.

But overall, this has been an electric NCAA postseason marked primarily by parity and upsets, not the typical SEC dominance. The dissolved Pac-12 actually has more teams in the Omaha bracket than the SEC does.

LSU remains the most popular ticket for BetMGM players who are betting the NCAA baseball odds. About 12% of the market is LSU bets, thanks in part to Louisiana’s status as a legal betting state.

Tennessee, the flagship university of another legal betting state, was the second most popular ticket as of June 5. The Vols were also playing as the defending national champions before they were eliminated by Arkansas last weekend. 

But it’s Arkansas that’s been adjusted into the favorite role after the super regional round of play. The Razorbacks’ .313 team batting average is the top mark among the eight remaining CWS teams.

Six of the eight remaining teams are shorter than +1500 in the CWS outright market, and ironically, Arkansas is the only team that hasn’t won a national championship in the last 15 years. 

LSU (2023), Oregon State (2018), Coastal Carolina (2016), UCLA (2013), and Arizona (2012) have all been here semi-recently and lifted the trophy at the end of the championship series. 

Oh, and for those looking for a Cinerella story to believe in – welcome, Murray State. The Racers weren’t even on the board at BetMGM until May 25, when they made the Oxford regional as the No. 4 team. The price? 500-to-1.

Since then, Murray State has ridden the lightning, including one-run victories in win-or-go-home rubber games against both Ole Miss and Duke. 

Now priced at +3500, the Racers remain the longest shot left in the futures table. Then again, they’ve been there before.