Part of college basketball’s beauty is its unpredictability. Just one year after the 2022 NCAA Tournament produced a blue blood special of Duke, North Carolina, Villanova and Kansas in the Final Four, the 2023 Big Dance veered hard in an unexpected direction. The Final Four featured three first-time guests — FAU, Miami and San Diego State — along with No. 4 seed and eventual national champion UConn.
UConn, Miami and FAU were unranked to begin last season, while San Diego State was 19th. Meanwhile, North Carolina became the first preseason No. 1 team to ever miss the NCAA Tournament. Now, with the arrival of the 2023-24 season, it’s time to embrace the possibilities once again.
When the ball is tipped Monday around the country, it will mark the beginning of a five-month journey that will culminate in Glendale, Arizona, for the 2024 Final Four. Opinions on who will be at State Farm Stadium on the first weekend of April vary tremendously within our panel of six experts here at CBS Sports. Collectively, we’ve picked 13 teams to reach the Final Four, with three different teams coming out on top as national champions.
Below, you’ll find those attempts to predict what’s in store for the thoroughly unpredictable sport of college basketball in the 2023-24 season.
2024 Final Four predictions
Predicted champions
Kansas: The Jayhawks have won two national championships under Bill Self and would’ve been the favorite in 2020 if not for a global pandemic leading to the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament. Now, here they are again, No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 and the favorite in betting markets to win the 2024 NCAA Tournament largely because of Self’s presence, the return of starters Dajuan Harris, Kevin McCullar and K.J. Adams and the addition of transfers Hunter Dickinson and Nick Timberlake. Kansas has talent, experience, depth and a coach who has been labeled the best in the…
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