I'm not a gambling man, but I always like to pay close attention the the odds just to see what Vegas thinks about games. Some odds were released on the likelihood of teams winning it all this week and Pitt's placement was pretty interesting.
Earlier, I wrote about needing to let the seeding thing die ... and I will. But in looking over these odds, I thought one more post was warranted.
Pitt checks in at 66:1 to win it all. Overall, that's tied for the 20th best odds and using the very basic calculation, that would come out to a five seed. The Panthers are either tied with or ahead of numerous teams with better seeds, including all of the No. 5 seeds (Cincinnati, VCU, Oklahoma, and Saint Louis), three of the No. 6 seeds (Ohio State, Baylor, and UMass), all of the No. 7 seeds (UConn, Oregon, Texas, and New Mexico), and three of the No. 8 seeds (Colorado, Gonzaga, and Memphis).
Colorado, ironically, is the lowest No. 8 seed and is way down at 250:1. You can make the argument they were overseeded a bit. And for the record, Pitt isn't even the worst case as No. 9 Oklahoma State checked in at only 40:1 to win it all.
Does all of this mean Pitt should have been a No. 5 seed? Probably not. The committee has made it very clear how they do their seeding and it's not based so much on who they think is good - rather, it's all of the metrics such as strength of schedule, RPI, etc., with a little bit of personal opinion probably mixed in. And based on that, Pitt didn't fare well enough.
However, the fact that Pitt is a heavy (for an 8/9 game, anyway) 6 1/2-point favorite in their opening game and these odds seeming to favor them, it just adds fuel to the fire that the seeding for the Panthers probably wasn't where it should have been.
Alright, no more seeding talk (I promise).
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