In the long history of the men’s NCAA tournament, a field that has now grown to 68 teams, there are still a surprising number of programs waiting to participate in their first March Madness.
If you go back to the tournament’s inception in 1939, there have been well more than 3,000 total spots available. Yet, of the 363 basketball teams currently in Division I (352 eligible), some eligible programs have never played in the NCAA tournament. Note that more programs will be eligible after completing their transition to DI.
Kennesaw State has left the list after qualifying for the 2023 NCAA tournament. The Owls secured their first-ever appearance in the tournament with a Big South tournament championship win and auto bid.
Two teams qualified for the first time in 2022: Longwood and Bryant. In 2021, Grand Canyon and Hartford made the tournament for the first time.
Below is the full list. A reminder, winning a conference tournament grants an eligible team an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
| School | CONFERENCE |
|---|---|
| Army | Patriot |
| Bethune-Cookman | SWAC |
| Cal Baptist | WAC |
| Central Arkansas | ASUN |
| Chicago State | Independent |
| The Citadel | SoCon |
| Denver | Summit League |
| Elon | CAA |
| Grambling | SWAC |
| High Point | Big South |
| Incarnate Word | Southland |
| Kansas City | Summit League |
| Maine | America East |
| Maryland Eastern Shore | MEAC |
| Merrimack | NEC |
| New Hampshire | America East |
| NJIT | America East |
| North Alabama | ASUN |
| Omaha | Summit League |
| Presbyterian | Big South |
| Purdue Fort Wayne | Horizon League |
| Quinnipiac | MAAC |
| Sacramento State | Big Sky |
| Sacred Heart | Northeast |
| SIUE | Ohio Valley |
| South Dakota | Summit League |
| Stetson | ASUN |
| UC Riverside | Big West |
| UMass Lowell | America East |
| USC Upstate | Big South |
| UT Martin | Ohio Valley |
| UTRGV | WAC |
| Utah Valley | WAC |
| Western Illinois | Summit League |
| William & Mary | CAA |
| Youngstown State | Horizon League |
*Bellarmine, Le Moyne, Lindenwood, Queens, Southern Indiana, Stonehill, St. Thomas, Tarleton State, Texas A&M–Commerce, UC San Diego and Utah Tech are not eligible for the 2024 tournament, as they are still completing the transition into DI.
The tournament has grown from an initial eight teams, moving to 16 in 1951 and then growing steadily until 1985, when it reached its familiar format of 64.
Play-in games have made appearances throughout the years, but became a permanent fixture in 2001, when the total number of teams was bumped to 65. In 2011, the play-in was expanded to create the First Four, an opening round that helped fill out the Round of 64. Thus, since 2011, 68 teams have made the NCAA tournament every year.
Two teams have made the NCAA tournament but haven’t been part of the bracket as most of us know it. Houston Baptist made the preliminary round in 1984, when there were 53 teams in the tournament, but lost to Alcorn State. Alabama A&M won the SWAC in 2005, earning the school’s lone automatic bid, but fell to Oakland 79-69 in the tournament’s play-in game.
There is another small, but more impressive group included in this list — the four teams that have been eligible for every NCAA tournament but have failed to make it to one.
In 2017, Northwestern gained plenty of attention as the Wildcats — previously one of the five original teams to never make the tournament — not only qualified for their first ever tournament, but actually picked up a win, and gave eventual runner-up Gonzaga a run for its money in the second round.
The other four teams to have been eligible for every tournament and not been dancing once are Army, William & Mary and The Citadel.
In 1968, Army actually did qualify for the NCAA tournament, but coach Bobby Knight thought the Black Knights would have a better shot in the NIT and turned down the invite. Army lost its first game in the NIT to Notre Dame.