BettingPros: 2026 NCAA Tournament Best Bets for First Round

Hello everybody, welcome in to the BettingPros Podcast. I’m Ryan Wormeli, joined by my friend PJ Glasser. It is the week after one of the greatest days of the year – Selection Sunday.

I basically spend the entire Monday every year just consuming as much NCAA Tournament content as I can, filling out my bracket, tweaking my bracket, and overthinking everything, even though we are still days away from tip-off.

I’m excited to dive back into it today. We’ll look at some standalone games and give out our Hard Rock Best Bets for the first round.

I’ll go first. I’ll just tell you right now, it’s the 13-seeded Troy Trojans plus the spread against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. I am very, very happy to take that.

We’ll see how that line continues to move throughout the week, but if that thing stays above double digits, I will be more than comfortable fading Nebraska to blow out a team for their first-ever NCAA Tournament win.

My Hard Rock Best Bet for the first round is Troy +12.5.

PJ Glasser’s Hard Rock Best Bet

It’s going to be TCU +2.5 against Ohio State, which is the very first game that we get on Thursday.

What a way to start the day, Worm. I hate doing that to myself, but I love TCU. I think this is a ‘WTF’ (wrong team favored) spot – I think TCU is the better team.

We’ve got a team out of the Big 12 going up against a team out of the Big Ten. I just think the Big 12 is a better conference. I love how TCU has been playing, including in the non-conference this year.

So, I’ll take TCU +2.5 against Ohio State for my Hard Rock Best Bet. My favorite bet. Wrong team favored.