The NCAA basketball betting season has tipped off, but don’t worry, you can still bet on the odds to make it to the Final Four at Bodog. Those odds will be up all season.

Kansas (4/1), Kentucky (5/1), North Carolina (15/2) and Duke (10/1) are the early favourites to win the national championship. Pretty shocking, huh? It’s almost like those four schools have some sort of strong college basketball tradition.

Michigan State and Villanova, both at 12/1, are also drawing some betting interest. In fact, they’ve attracted more action than Duke. Maybe futures bettors are getting sick and tired of wasting money on the Blue Devils, who haven’t won it all since 2001, despite heading into a number of tournaments with a high ranking.

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This year’s Duke team is once again stocked with talent, but depth could be a concern. If the Blue Devils suffer any injures, they could be in trouble.

You might also notice a change of style from coach Mike Krzyzewski’s team. No longer will it be dominated by the guards and perimeter shooting. This year it’s about size, with up to six players between 6-8 and 7-1 in the rotation.

“There's a lot of newness to what we're trying to do,” Krzyzewski said recently. “It's a new system for our team and the way we play.”

With “a lot of newness,” early-season bettors might want to avoid backing Duke as it works out the kinks. But when it does, it should still be a contender.

“We have some inside play we haven't had before,” Coach K added. “That's a real switch for us, but we're adjusting.”

There aren’t many better college coaches that Krzyzewski, so one strategy futures bettors might consider is to wait and see if Duke struggles off the hop. If it does, the futures number should go up. Pound it then and hope the necessary adjustments are successfully implemented.

As for possible dark-horse teams, the early ones, based on handle, are Butler (50/1), Tennessee (25/1) and Purdue (22/1).

The Boilermakers are an interesting team thanks to junior forward Robbie Hummel, who might just end up being the Big Ten Player of the Year. He’s one of those players that makes the others around him better. It’s a nice quality.

"Just the consistent part," coach Matt Painter said about what Hummel adds to the team. "Having a guy that pieces it all together. He really helps us on both ends of the floor as a glue guy. He's a selfless type of guy. It's not something that happened overnight. He's a very mature basketball player."

Hummel struggled with a bad back last season, but appears to be healthy now, good news for Purdue fans and bettors.