Counting NCAA tournament wins in this century is little more than a blinkered exercise in setting arbitrary and subjective quantitative goalposts. Much like a good portion of real life. Right, let’s do this.
NCAA tournament National titles
wins, 2000-21 2000-21
1. Kansas 51 1
2. North Carolina 50 3
3. Duke 49 3
4. Michigan State 46 1
5. Kentucky 45 1
After Kentucky there’s a big drop — equivalent to one national championship run — before you get down to a plucky underdog with two national titles like Florida. No other program has won more than 36 games. (Full team list at the bottom of this post. Limber up your scrolling finger.)
People are occasionally surprised to see that Kansas reigns supreme on this metric. The secret sauce in Lawrence is pretty simple. In addition to, of course, winning it all in 2008 and getting to the title game in 2003 and 2012, KU just consistently gets to the round of 32. Bill Self’s guys have been there every single year since 2007, including in 2021 when North Carolina and Michigan State both missed that mark and Duke and Kentucky were sitting at home. No one notices those wins in real time, but they add up.
On the other side of this coin a slim majority of the programs in Division I — 51 percent — has yet to win a single NCAA tournament game this century. That winless bunch includes two major-conference programs:
Nebraska
TCU
Major conferences that have lots of teams tend to rack up NCAA tournament wins, though, to be fair, acquiring legacy programs from the Big East (or being the Big East and reacquiring UConn) can also boost your league’s victory total:
Based on 2020-21 memberships
NCAA tournament
wins, 2000-21
1. ACC 256
2. Big Ten 209
3. Big 12 172
4. SEC 170
5. Big East 147
6. Pac-12 133
7. American 49
8. West Coast 48
9. Atlantic 10 40
10. Missouri Valley 31
11. Mountain West 21
There have been 174 winning teams in the NCAA tournament this century:
NCAA tournament
wins, 2000-21
1. Kansas 51
2. North Carolina 50
3. Duke 49
4. Michigan State 46
5. Kentucky 45
6. Florida 39
7. Gonzaga 36
8. Wisconsin 34
9. Connecticut 33
Syracuse 33*
11. UCLA 32*
12. Arizona 30
Villanova 30
14. Louisville 28
15. Michigan 23*
16. Butler 22
Maryland 22
Ohio State 22
Xavier 22
20. Oklahoma 21
21. Oregon 20**
22. Purdue 19
Texas 19
West Virginia 19
25. Illinois 18
26. Baylor 17
27. Memphis 16
Pitt 16
Tennessee 16*
30. Indiana 14
Virginia 14
32. Marquette 13
Notre Dame 13
34. Cincinnati 12
Oklahoma State 12
Texas Tech 12
Wichita State 12*
38. Florida State 11
Georgetown 11
Iowa State 11
Stanford 11
USC 11
43. LSU 10
Texas A&M 10
Kansas State 10*
NC State 10*
47. Missouri 9
Washington 9
VCU 9*
50. Alabama 8
Auburn 8
52. Georgia Tech 7
Houston 7
Miami 7
Utah 7
56. Arkansas 6
Boston College 6
Creighton 6
Loyola Chicago 6
Nevada 6
San Diego State 6
Temple 6
Wake Forest 6
Dayton 6*
65. George Mason 5
Iowa 5
Saint Joseph's 5
Southern Illinois 5
Tulsa 5
Vanderbilt 5
71. Cal 4
Kent State 4
Mississippi State 4
Northern Iowa 4
Ohio 4
Seton Hall 4
South Carolina 4
UAB 4
Brigham Young 4*
Ole Miss 4*
Saint Mary's 4
Western Kentucky 4*
Arizona State 4***
84. Davidson 3
Milwaukee 3
Murray State 3
Oregon State 3
Saint Louis 3
UNLV 3
Virginia Tech 3
Washington State 3
Clemson 3*
Florida Gulf Coast 3*
La Salle 3*
Siena 3*
96. Bradley 2
Bucknell 2
Buffalo 2
Colorado 2
Cornell 2
Georgia State 2
Harvard 2
Middle Tennessee 2
Minnesota 2
New Mexico 2
Oral Roberts 2
Pacific 2
Penn State 2
Rhode Island 2
Richmond 2
Stephen F. Austin 2
Hampton 2*
Morehead State 2*
Norfolk State 2*
North Dakota State 2*
Northwestern State 2*
South Florida 2*
Vermont 2*
Mount St. Mary's 2***
UNC Asheville 2***
121. Abilene Christian 1
Central Michigan 1
Charlotte 1
Cleveland State 1
Colorado State 1
DePaul 1
Fresno State 1
George Washington 1
Georgia 1
Hawaii 1
Indiana State 1
Lehigh 1
Liberty 1
Little Rock 1
Manhattan 1
Mercer 1
Montana 1
North Texas 1
Northwestern 1
Old Dominion 1
Pepperdine 1
Providence 1
Rutgers 1
St. John's 1
San Diego 1
UC Irvine 1
UCF 1
UMBC 1
UNC Wilmington 1
Utah State 1
Winthrop 1
Wofford 1
Wyoming 1
Yale 1
Albany 1*
Belmont 1*
Cal Poly 1*
Drake 1*
Fairleigh Dickinson 1*
Florida A&M 1*
Holy Cross 1*
James Madison 1*
Monmouth 1*
Niagara 1*
North Carolina A&T 1*
NC Central 1*
Oakland 1*
Radford 1*
Robert Morris 1*
St. Bonaventure 1*
Texas Southern 1*
UA Pine Bluff 1*
UC Davis 1*
UTSA 1*
* Won one game prior to round of 64
** Not including forfeit over VCU in 2021 round of 64
*** Won two games prior to round of 64
The newest full-fledged no-asterisk members of this “We made it to the round of 32 (or beyond!)” club are Oregon State, Oral Roberts, Abilene Christian, North Texas, and Rutgers. Salute.
John Gasaway 