Iowa vs. Nebraska prediction: Nebraska favored to win men's March Madness Sweet Sixteen matchup [3/26/2026]

Nebraska will take on Iowa, in what is expected to be a close men's college basketball game, at Toyota Center on Thursday, starting at 7:30 PM ET.

For this Sweet 16 matchup, Nebraska—an unorthodox defense that forces opponents into threes— face Iowa, a Ben McCollum team forcing plenty of turnovers.

Based on updated simulation results, Dimers' advanced college basketball model gives Nebraska a slight edge with a 51% win probability over Iowa.

This article offers an expanded analysis of Thursday's Iowa vs. Nebraska matchup, including an expanded look at the predicted score, best bets and picks.

Iowa vs. Nebraska prediction: Who will win and advance to the Elite Eight?

Using innovative machine learning and statistical analysis, we have simulated the outcome of Thursday's NCAAM Tournament game between Iowa and Nebraska, forming part of our men's college basketball predictions coverage.

Our famous predictive model currently gives Nebraska a 51% chance of defeating Iowa. Our predicted score is Iowa 66-66 Nebraska.

According to our model, Iowa (+1.5) has a 55% chance of covering the spread, while the 132.5-point over/under has a 52% chance of going over.

While there is no way for a men's college basketball game to end in a tie, our prediction of 66-66 is based on each team's average score in the above-mentioned simulations of Iowa vs. Nebraska.

Iowa vs. Nebraska odds

We have sourced the best men's college basketball odds in America for this game, which are listed here:

All odds are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.

Iowa vs. Nebraska picks and best bet

After matching our probabilities against the best available odds, we can reveal our picks for each of the major markets. Plus, find our best bet for the game below: