New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson Knights weren’t looking good five minutes into the second half of their NCAA Tournament play-in game against Prairie View A&M Tuesday at the University of Dayton (OH) Arena.

The Knights were losing 50-38. Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way to the round of 64 after closing on a 44-26 run.

With their win, they join Seton Hall University as the only two New Jersey teams participating in March Madness. The state’s gambling laws don’t allow people to bet on New Jersey teams in New Jersey.

What that means for serious March Madness bettors is that they cannot bet on one seed Gonzaga either, as the entire game is off the board. Should Seton Hall advance to the second round, going to Pennsylvania will be the only way to bet on the Pirates’ presumed opponent the University of Kentucky too.

Thankfully, neighboring Pennsylvania has sportsbooks at which you can place bets on the Knights and Pirates.

However, if you do want to bet in Pennsylvania, be aware there is no PA online betting yet. There are eight retail sportsbooks to choose from though, including six in the Philadelphia area.

Kambi sportsbooks offering lines for Seton Hall and Fairleigh Dickinson

At the time of publishing, Pennsylvania sports betting operator Kambi was offering lines on NJ teams’ games via Rivers Sportsbook, SugarHouse Sportsbook, and Parx Sportsbook.

We went to Rivers’ online bet slip to find out the lines at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

#10 Seton Hall vs. #7 Wofford (9:40 p.m., 3/21)

The spread for Seton Hall’s Thursday match-up against upstart Wofford is +2.5. The over/under was at 145 and the money line for Seton Hall was +128.

The Pirates put together a 20-13 season and made a solid run in the Big East tournament before falling to Philadelphia’s own Villanova 72-74 in the final.

The Pirates’ finished the season ranked 34th in the AP poll, 29th in the Coaches poll, and had a NET ranking of 57.

The Knights have been to the Big Dance 13 times and each of the past four years. Their deepest run in the tournament came in 1989 when the reached the finals but lost to Michigan.

#16 Fairleigh Dickinson vs. #1 Gonzaga (7:27 p.m., 3/21)

Understandably so, Kambi had Fairleigh Dickinson as a heavy underdog at +27. At the time of publishing, that was the biggest spread of any #16-#1 match-up.

The total for the match-up was 152.5 and there was no money line on the game.

Fairleigh Dickinson is one of four 16 seeds who snuck into the tournament. The Knights finished the year at 21-13 and earned an automatic bid to the tournament after beating St. Francis in the Northeast Conference tournament championship.

At the end of the season, the Knights were not ranked in any of the major polls and had a NET ranking of 203.

The school is 0-5 in its five NCAA Tournament appearances.

Only one 16 seed has won their first round match-up: the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2018, when the beat possible title contender Virginia.

March Madness expected to bring in $8.5 billion handle

According to a Forbes article published this week, the American Gaming Association estimates that 47 million Americans will bet more than $8.5 billion on the NCAA Tournament this year.

About half of what’s bet will be spent on tournament brackets.

“The NCAA Tournament brackets and pools generate gigantic interest, and $4.6 billion is expected to be wagered on a collective 149 million brackets by more than 40 million people,” contributor Jay Ginsbach wrote. On average, fans fill out four brackets at an average of $30 per bracket.”