The college basketball season has yet to get underway, and yet there are already odds about which coach may be the first to lose their respective job.
Such is the life of college athletics in 2018.
As it stands in the way-too-early gambles available on who may be the first to go, Minnesota's Richard Pitino is the leader in the clubhouse according to BetDSI, which has him at +250 ahead of the Minnesota's season-opener on Tuesday. Maryland's Mark Turgeon doesn't trail far behind him at +300. DePaul's Dave Leitao and Penn State's Pat Chambers are at +400 and +500, respectively.
The rest of the way-too-early candidates to be ousted (which includes coaches from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12) are expected names already on your radar if you read Matt Norlander's hot seat rankings column last month, but some are curveballs: Kansas' Bill Self and Arizona's Sean Miller, to be specific. They're not your average coach-on-a-hot-seat due to performance; they're among the handful who, in one way or another, have been mentioned in the FBI's investigation into corruption within college hoops.
College basketball's opening night is Tuesday, when Kentucky takes on Duke. SportsLine's advanced computer model simulated the game 10,000 times and says one side of the spread cashes in well over 70 percent of simulations. See which one it is.
Odds on first coach to be removed from job in 2018-19
- Richard Pitino (Minnesota) +250
- Mark Turgeon (Maryland) +300
- Dave Leitao (DePaul) +400
- Pat Chambers (Penn State) +500
- Danny Manning (Wake Forest) +750
- Chris Mullin (St. John's) +750
- Ernie Kent (Washington State) +750
- Jim Christian (Boston College) +1000
- Tim Miles (Nebraska) +1000
- Sean Miller (Arizona) +1500
- Bruce Pearl (Auburn) +1500
- Dana Altman (Oregon) +2000
- Bill Self (Kansas) +3000
- Greg McDermott (Creighton) +3000
- Field (Any other head coach) +150
As for more interesting (and perhaps more easily predictable) bets available, BetDSI also has odds on which top-ranked teams will earn which seed. Kansas and Kentucky lead the early betting to land No. 1 seeds come March, followed closely by Duke, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Villanova.
Kansas seed for 2019 NCAA Tournament
- No. 1 seed -150
- No. 2 seed +150
- No. 3 seed +200
- No. 4 seed or higher +400
Kentucky seed for 2019 NCAA Tournament
- No. 1 seed -125
- No. 2 seed +125
- No. 3 seed +250
- No. 4 seed or higher +350
Duke seed for 2019 NCAA Tournament
- No. 1 seed +100
- No. 2 seed +125
- No. 3 seed +200
- No. 4 seed or higher +500
Gonzaga seed for 2019 NCAA Tournament
- No. 1 seed +125
- No. 2 seed +175
- No. 3 seed +200
- 4 seed or higher +300
North Carolina seed for 2019 NCAA Tournament
- No. 1 seed +150
- No. 2 seed +250
- No. 3 seed +250
- No. 4 seed or higher +125
Villanova seed for 2019 NCAA Tournament
- No. 1 seed +350
- No. 2 seed +250
- No. 3 seed +150
- No. 4 seed or higher -150
Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga and Kentucky remain top picks to win it all this season, and Tuesday's opening day should shed light on where things stand with No. 1 Kansas set to take on tenth-ranked Michigan State and No. 2 Kentucky slated to take on No. 4 Duke as part of a stellar doubleheader in the annual Champions Classic.
