<
>

Tournament Challenge: Kansas the early favorite

play
Vegas favors Kansas to win tournament (3:30)

ESPN Chalk writer Dave Tuley breaks down the NCAA tournament field according to Vegas sportsbooks. (3:30)

Below are updates on early returns for ESPN's 2016 Tournament Challenge as of Monday at 7 p.m ET.

Top title picks

1. Kansas (1-seed): 24.1%

2. Michigan State (2-seed): 21.1%

3. North Carolina (1-seed): 16.3%

4. Oklahoma (2-seed): 6.4%

5. Kentucky (4-seed): 5.3%

6. Virginia (1-seed): 4.5%

7. Oregon (1-seed): 3.4%

8. Villanova (2-seed): 2.4%

9. Duke (4-seed): 2.3%

10. West Virginia (3-seed): 1.6%

  • Since late last night both Kansas and Michigan State received a bump of about 2 percent, while North Carolina dropped about 1 percent. Others held firm.

  • 1-seeds Virginia and Oregon remain out of the top-five title picks.

Top picks to reach Final Four, by region

South

1. Kansas (1-seed): 66.1%

2. Villanova (2-seed): 11.7%

3. Miami (Fla.) (3-seed): 5.9%

4. Maryland (5-seed): 5.5%

  • Cal (4-seed) picked in just 2.7% of brackets to win the South

East

1. UNC (1-seed): 50.1%

2. Kentucky (4-seed): 18.8%

3. West Virginia (3-seed): 10.9%

4. Xavier (2-seed): 8.9%

  • UK significantly vaults the 2- and 3-seeds in the East

Midwest

1. Michigan State(2-seed): 60.9%

2. UVA (1-seed): 22.9%

3. Utah (3-seed): 3.3%

4. Purdue (5-seed): 3.1%

  • 2-seed MSU with a huge lead over 1-seed UVA

  • 4-seed Iowa State (3%) isn't far back from Purdue and Utah, but all three are big-time longshots

West

1. Oklahoma (2-seed): 42.5%

2. Oregon (1-seed): 22.4%

3. Duke (4-seed): 14.1%

4. Texas A&M (3-seed): 12.4%

  • 2-seed Oklahoma with a big lead over 1-seed Oregon; Duke vaults A&M

Upsets

Round-of-64 upset picks:

  • 9-seed UConn over 8-seed Colorado (73.0%)

  • 9-seed Butler over 8-seed Texas Tech (63.1%)

  • 9-seed Providence over 8-seed USC (61.9%)

  • 10-seed VCU over 7-seed Oregon State (56.4%)

  • 9-seed Cincinnati over 8-seed Saint Joe's (54.9%)

Top pick among each seed 11 or worse

  • 11-seed Gonzaga over 6-seed Seton Hall: 45.8%

  • 12-seed Yale over 5-seed Baylor: 18.5%

  • 13-seed Hawaii over 4-seed Cal: 18.4%

  • 14-seed Fresno State over 3-seed Utah: 9.8%

  • 15-seed Weber State over 2-seed Xavier: 4.3%

  • 16-seed Hampton over 1-seed Virginia: 2.7%

More notes about low seeds

Of teams seeded No. 11 or worse, Gonzaga is the top pick to make the Sweet 16 (18.2%); of seeds 12 or worse, 13-seed Hawaii is the top pick to make the Sweet 16 (5.0%).

Also worth noting about the 11-11 play-in games (users don't pick the play-in games).

  • 22.9% of brackets have the Vandy/Wich St. winner beating Arizona

  • 21.2% of brackets have the Michigan/Tulsa winning beating Notre Dame

For more information about users' picks.

For all of our tournament coverage.