In a showdown of modern women’s college basketball dynasties, the UConn Huskies are favored to end their nine-year title drought, while the South Carolina Gamecocks are underdogs to earn the program’s first back-to-back championships.
Following Friday night’s Final Four games, UConn opened up as a 5.5-point favorite over South Carolina for Sunday’s NCAA women’s basketball championship, while the over-under opened at 132.5, according to ESPN BET odds. The Huskies were 6.5-point underdogs to the Gamecocks before going on to dominate a 29-point road win in February.
That contest briefly vaulted UConn to championship-favorite status over South Carolina, before heavy action on the Gamecocks allowed them to regain it at +240 heading into March Madness. However, the Huskies became favorites during the NCAA tournament following the season-ending injury to JuJu Watkins of USC, which was in UConn’s region of the bracket. UConn eventually entered the Final Four as a -150 favorite to win it all.
Both teams were immensely popular in the championship futures market all season, with multiple books reporting far greater than 50% of the overall handle backing either the Huskies or Gamecocks. However, the greatest liability varies from book to book.
“It’s South Carolina all the way,” said ESPN BET director of North American sports trading Adrian Horton. “UConn has also been popular, but any result aside from South Carolina would be preferable for us as of now.”
Caesars Sportsbook college basketball trader Patrick Berbert echoed that sentiment, saying that Caesars customers would be “rooting for South Carolina this weekend.” However, other books will actually be pulling for the opposite result in Sunday’s championship game.
“Most importantly, UConn is our worst result, and we’re really hoping they get knocked out,” BetMGM sports trader Hannah Luther said before the Final Four. “Factoring in the futures markets, a Texas vs. UCLA final is the best-case scenario.”
Clearly, this did not come to pass: South Carolina easily covered as 5.5-point favorites over Texas in Friday night’s first game, with UConn having little problem covering 7.5 points against UCLA later on.