By Richard Gardner | Sportsbook Manager

The college basketball futures board has been getting plenty of attention from Bodog bettors since the preseason polls were released last week.

The Kansas Jayhawks are in the top slot in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls and their futures odds, 4/1 to win the NCAA men’s championship, reflect what the pollsters think.

The Jayhawks return a number of players to a team that went to the Sweet 16 last year, including Cole Aldrich, Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor. They also added Xavier Henry, the highly touted freshman from Oklahoma City.

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Perennial powerhouses like Kansas always receive preseason action from futures bettors, even in leaner years. The same is true for schools like North Carolina (15/2), Kentucky (5/1), and Duke (10/1), all three of which are expected to compete for a title in 2010.

UCLA is another program with a rich tradition of winning, but the Bruins aren’t ranked heading into the season. Yet we still have to put up a relatively conservative number (18/1) in order to stop their many backers from putting us too far offside. And heck, if all those Bruins fans are going to bet on them regardless of the odds, why should we give them a juicy payout?

One side that doesn’t have quite the same hoops tradition is Tennessee, but we’ve received a number of significant futures bets on the Vols, particularly at 7/1 to win the SEC East. Whether that’s because the Volunteers have reached the Sweet 16 in two of the last three years or there’s a contingent out there that thinks Kentucky’s overrated we don’t know.

Other notes and observations:

--Butler (50/1) is getting a lot of love to win it all, the little school from Indiana having reached the tourney the past three years.

--A futures bet that’s getting some unexpected action is Oregon to win the Pac-10. Maybe Ducks fans are feeling a little cocky after the football team hammered USC?

--As for the conference favorite that bettors seem to believe in the most, Villanova is getting a lot of attention at 3/1 to win the Big East.

--Michigan State and Texas are No. 2 and 3, respectively, in both polls and only garnering 12/1 odds to win a championship, the same odds as Louisville, No. 19 in the AP and No. 23 in the ESPN/USA Today.

--Purdue is No. 7 in both polls and getting a generous 22/1 to win it all.

--Washington is in the top 15 in both polls and getting 45/1.

--Minnesota and Mississippi State are both ranked and getting 100/1.

--Dayton is ranked and getting 200/1.