Duke, Auburn, Alabama Lead National Championship Odds

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00:00When you look at the National Championship odds, who do you see at the very top?

00:04Duke in Auburn, co-favorites at a plus 430 number, less than seven weeks away from Selection Sunday.

00:12Which team on this list, in your opinion, John Rothstein, looks the most like a National Championship contender?

00:20I would say, other than Duke in Auburn, I would put Alabama in the three spot.

00:25I know that Alabama, obviously, has taken a couple of losses, but still on a neutral court.

00:29When you look at the totality of the weapons that Nate Oates has in his arsenal,

00:34this is a significantly deeper team than the one a year ago, got to the Final Four for the first time in program history.

00:40But make no mistake about it, those three programs, Duke, Auburn, and Alabama on a neutral court,

00:46have unequivocally the highest ceilings out of any three teams in college basketball.

00:51And with that said, it is only late January.

00:54But if any of those three teams, Duke, Auburn, or Alabama, finish their respective seasons short of San Antonio,

01:02it will be a colossal, colossal disappointment.

01:05Duke went to the Elite Eight last year under John Shire, came up short.

01:09Auburn has not been back to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since it went to the Final Four in 2019,

01:15and again is trending towards being the one seed in the South.

01:18And Alabama, who went to a Final Four last year and returned an All-American in Mark Sears,

01:24has a deeper roster than it did a year ago.

01:28I said before the season started this was the most anticipated season in the history of Alabama basketball.

01:34I'm not wavering from that statement.

01:36It's Final Four or bust in Tuscaloosa, in Auburn, and of course in Durham.