Kentucky, Duke, Connecticut, Indiana, Baylor, Notre Dame, and Xavier. All big names in college basketball, and battling to come out of the South region.

Among that list, you have the #1 seed Kentucky and #2 seed Duke, along with the defending champion of last year’s tournament in Connecticut. The South region is jam packed with first round picks in the coming NBA draft, and includes the most winning coach of all-time. Duke and Kentucky, of course, are favored to tear through the South and meet in the Elite 8 with Kentucky getting 2/3 odds to win South bracket and Duke 11/2, according to bovada.com. These figures are coming as no surprise to anyone who has watched Kentucky and Duke dominate good teams all season with the only real stumbling coming in their conference tournaments.

The only real threats at this point with the brackets clean, is #3 seed Baylor, #4 Indiana, #5 Wichita State, and Uconn are the unfamiliar #9 seed. So before pencil in Kentucky and Duke playing each other, let’s take a better look at how threatening the teams really are.

Both Baylor and Indiana are teams that were in the top 10 for a majority of the season until slipping to #14 and #15 in the AP Poll, respectively. They both have the talent and the conference games that can prepare them to face the likes of Kentucky or Duke.

Wichita State features a balanced game that has them ranked #16 in the AP Poll, but lack big victories that the previous two teams have on their resume. The first test for Wichita comes from a team that shocked the tournament just a year ago in VCU, who is the #12 seed and has 75/1 odds to come out of the South.

Connecticut is the team that will have the most to prove early on with a first round game against sneaky good Iowa State, followed by a game that will likely be against the #1 seed Kentucky. That is a big reason why Connecticut, who although talented, is only being given 30/1 odds to win the South by bovada.com.

Baylor is tied for the second highest odds at 11/2, followed by Wichita with 9/1, and Indiana with 12/1. A few notable teams left include the UNLV Runnin Rebels, who are the #6 seed given 25/1 odds, Notre Dame with 40/1, and Iowa State and Xavier both at 60/1.

2012 South Bracket Odds – South Region Final Four Betting Odds
(found at Bovada – click to bet or see most updated odds)