Creighton Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) dunks the ball. Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

College basketball bets: 2 national championship futures to bet right now

The NFL season is starting to wind down, which means March Madness will be here before we know it. Instead of waiting for the calendar to flip, though, let's target a pair of mid-season national title futures to hold us over. 

Auburn Tigers (+1600 DraftKings)

Auburn continues to cruise through the SEC without a hiccup, and no one seems to care. The Tigers have won 11 straight games by double digits, and they scored at least 80 points in 10 of them.

Through 18 games, Auburn ranks ninth in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency and sixth in adjusted defensive efficiency. Arizona is the only other team in the country that ranks top 10 in both categories. This is a balanced basketball team that goes 10 deep, and eight players are averaging at least 6.1 points per game. 

The Tigers are still flying under the radar due to their lack of star power, but we'll take depth and balance over future NBA stars any day. 

Creighton Bluejays (+4000 FanDuel)

Creighton reached the Elite Eight last season under head coach Greg McDermott, and it still has three starters from last year's squad on the team. The Bluejays aren't as deep as Auburn, but their impressive trio of Baylor Scheierman, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Trey Alexander all average better than 16 points and six rebounds per game. 

Creighton has the eighth-ranked adjusted defensive efficiency in the country behind Kalkbrenner and his 2.8 blocks per game, and it ranks 16th in effective field goal percentage. It's hard to find a weakness with this team, and they have the experience of making a deep NCAA Tournament run under their belt.

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