The 34 College Basketball Teams That Have Never Played In The NCAA Tournament

Prior to the start of the current basketball season, there were close to 350 schools hoping to earn an invite to the NCAA Tournament. Most of them ended up on the outside looking in when the list of the 68 teams that the nod one was solidified—including dozens of programs that once again failed to make the cut for the first time.

The first NCAA Tournament was held all the way back in 1939 and only featured eight teams competing for a the title at a time when the NIT (which held its inaugural showdown the year before) was considered the premier postseason event.

That ended up changing over the course of the next few decades thanks in no small part to the expansion that made the tournament that’s synonymous with March Madness the top dog, and the vast majority of programs that have been eligible to play in it have done so at least one time.

However, there are still a number of schools in search of their first NCAA Tournament appearance more than 85 years after it was founded.

Army

Navy has had the most success among service academies with 11 tournament appearances (although its last was in 1998), while Air Force gets the silver medal with four.

Army lands the bronze by default, but West Point is firmly a football school when you consider the Black Knights have never been a part of March Madness; they did receive an invite in 1968 but turned it down in favor of the NIT (which they’ve played in eight times).

Bellarmine

Bellarmine is a newcomer to the Division I level after spending close to 50 years as a DII school before making the leap in 2020 after joining the ASUN.

The 2024-25 season marked the first year the Knights were eligible for the NCAA Tournament; they did win their conference tourney in 2022 but were unable to land the autobid due to rules imposed during the four-year transitional period.

Bethune–Cookman

Bethune–Cookman has been playing at the DI level since the 1980-81 season and has failed to get over the hump close to 45 years later.

The Wildcats have had the best record in the SWAC on two occasions but have been unable to win the tournament the determines who gets the autobid and are the only team in the conference that’s never gotten a taste of March Madness.

California Baptist

California Baptist is another relative newcomer, as the Lancers kicked off their transition to DI in 2017 before becoming a member of the WAC.

They’ve been eligible for the NCAA Tournament since the 2022-23 campaign but have been boxed out thanks in no small part to the WAC juggernaut that is Grand Canyon (the Antelopes have represented the conference four of the past five years).

Central Arkansas

Central Arkansas—the team best known for producing Scottie Pippen—completed its transition to DI in 2011 and was initially a member of the Southland Conference before leaving for the ASUN in 2021.

That change of scenery didn’t do wonders for the Bears, who have only managed to finish above .500 a single time since pivoting and haven’t come close to making the tournament.

Chicago State

Chicago State has been a member of five different conferences since upgrading to Division I in the 1980s—including the now-defunct Great West, which lacked an automatic bid when the Cougars won its tournament in 2013.

2024 marked the first year Chicago State played as a member of the NEC, and they have some work to do after finishing in a tie for last with a 4-12 record in conference play.

The Citadel

The Citadel isn’t an official service academy, but it’s another program with heavy links to the military that still doesn’t know what it’s like to play in the NCAA Tournament.

This is also the first team since Army that’s been eligible for the tourney since its inception, and the Bulldogs are perennial underachievers who can only claim a single conference championship: a win over Mercer to clinch the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament…in 1927.

Denver

The basketball team at the University of Denver is known as the Pioneers, and any player on the team that helps them make the NCAA Tournament for the first time will certainly fit that definition when you consider they’ve been eligible for a grand total of 100 seasons and never made it.

Elon

Elon moved up to DI during the season that transpired during the turn of the millennium and initially joined the Big South before heading to the Southern ahead of another move to the CAA, where it remains today.

The Phoenix have not been able to win a championship of any type in any of those conferences and are subsequently still waiting for the day when they’re listed in an NCAA Tournament bracket.

Incarnate Word

Incarnate Word kicked off its arrival to DI with a bang by going 21-6 (9-5 in conference play) during its first season as a member of the Southland in 2013.

However, the Cardinals were eligible for any type of postseason play until 2018 and have not been able to take advantage of that opportunity since reaching that point (this season marked the first time they’ve been above .500 since that development).

Kansas City

Kansas City was a talented NAIA team before going up to DI, where it became eligible for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1990.

The Roos have had some solid seasons but have never been able to recapture the type of success they had at a less competitive level despite 35 years of trying to do exactly that.

Maine

Maine has had a somewhat tumultuous existence since its basketball team played its first season in 1903, as the program was discontinued multiple times during the first half of its history (it only fielded a freshman team for those 16 seasons).

It was also a member of the defunct Yankee Conference for close to 25 years after getting some stability and didn’t end up at the DI level until what is now known as the America East was founded in 1979.

The Black Bears have appeared in the championship game of the conference tournament five times (including in 2025) but have not been able to get the win that would get them their first NCAA Tournament invite.

Maryland Eastern Shore

Maryland Eastern Shore had a fairly fascinating two-year run early in its history; in 1973, the Hawks were ranked #20 in the preseason poll before going 27-2 and playing in the NIT only to post a 2-24 record the following season after the departure of head coach John Bates.

They’ve never come close to matching what remains the peak of the program and have historically been one of the worst teams in the MEAC while failing to check the March Madness box a single time.

UMass Lowell

The UMass Minutemen have made the NCAA Tournament nine times, but the guys who play at the university’s branch in Lowell have some work to do when it comes to catching up with their big brothers in Amherst.

The River Hawks have only been eligible for the tourney since 2018, and they did win a national championship at the DII level in 1988. They’ve had a couple of pretty solid seasons in the past few years, but they haven’t been able to get the win in the America East tournament that’s essentially a prerequisite for March Madness.

Merrimack

Merrimack has historically been a hockey school, but its basketball team has been on a mission to change that after it began its ascension to DI in 2019.

The Warriors actually had the best record in the NEC that season but had to wait until the 2023-24 campaign to become eligible for the NCAA Tournament.

They joined the MAAC in 2024 and finished with the second-best record in the conference but came up short in a tournament where Mount St. Mary’s earned the right to go dancing.

New Hampshire

Like Maine, UNH was a founding member of the Yankee Conference and also ended up at DI when it linked up with the America East.

The conference has not been kind to the Wildcats, who have never even appeared in the conference tournament championship and have also never managed to produce a single player who’s made it to the NBA.

NJIT

We’ve got yet another America East member thanks to NJIT, although the Highlanders are relatively newcomers who have only been eligible for the NCAA Tournament for 15 years.

With that said, they’re also still in search of their first conference championship game appearance.

North Alabama

NJIT is a DI veteran compared to North Alabama, which won two national championships at the DII level in 1979 and 1991.

The ASUN affiliates have appeared in the conference championship game two times since finishing the transition to DI in 2019 and managed to get their first NIT nod in 2025.

As a result, it seems like the Lions have a solid chance of checking the March Madness box in the not-so-distant future if they can keep the momentum going.

Presbyterian

Presbyterian firmly has the distinction of having the strangest nickname on this list; the Blue Hose got their moniker from the color of the socks the school’s athletes rocked when its athletic program was getting off of the ground in the early 1900s.

We’ve got yet another team that has never appeared in a conference championship game, although it’s worth noting the Big South member has only been eligible for postseason play since 2011.

Purdue Fort Wayne

Purdue’s flagship university may be a basketball powerhouse, but the same can’t be said about their brethren in Fort Wayne.

The Mastodons have been eligible for the NCAA Tournament since 2003 and eventually joined the Summit League, where they lost to North Dakota State in their one and only championship game appearance in 2014.

They headed to the Horizon League in 2020 and have not managed to get that far since the move.

Quinnipiac

Like Merrimack, Quinnipiac is a hockey school that also subsides in the MAAC after a stint in the NEC and is still doing what it can to get over the hump.

The Bobcats have been DI since the turn of the millennium and had a couple of losses in the NEC championship game before heading to the MAAC in 2013.

They’ve had some solid (but by no means stellar) seasons since then but have not been one of the two teams who’ve earned the right to play for a March Madness autobid in the title game.

Sacramento State

Sacramento State has been eligible for the NCAA Tournament for more than 30 years, but the move to DI hasn’t been too kind to them.

It took the Hornets 25 years to finish over .500 for the first time in the wake of that transition, and they’ve only managed to replicate the feat a single time during the 2019-20 season.

They’ve been a member of the Big Sky Conference the entire time but still haven’t played for a conference championship.

Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart got a DII national championship in 1986 and eventually moved up to DI before completing the transition prior to the 2000-01 season.

The Pioneers never appeared in the NEC championship game during the 25 years they spent in the conference and also came up short during their first year in the MAAC this season.

South Dakota

South Dakota State has been a bit of a juggernaut, but the same can’t be said for the basketball team at the plain ol’ University of South Dakota.

The Coyotes did have a DII national championship all the way back in 1958, and they racked up their fair share of NCAA Tournament appearances at that level before moving up to play with the big boys.

South Dakota has been eligible for the real thing since 2011 (they joined the Summit League the following year), but a loss to the Jackrabbits in the championship game in 2018 is the closest they’ve gotten to March Madness.

Tarleton State

Tarleton State is one of three teams on this list that first became eligible for the NCAA Tournament in 2021, so they get a bit of a pass.

The Texans racked up 14 tourney appearances at the DII level after the new millennium arrived and went 25-10 during the 2023-24 season with a 16-4 conference record that was good enough for second place in the WAC.

However, they lost their first and only game in the conference tournament that year and befell the same fate in 2025.

UC Riverside

There are seven teams in the University of California system that compete at the DI level (none have had more success than UCLA, although the Cal branch in Berkley has also fared pretty well), and UC Riverside is the only one that’s failed to make the NCAA Tournament.

The Highlanders held their own as a DII team before moving up and becoming eligible for March Madness in 2002 after joining the Big West.

The program has recently come into its own with winning records in five of the past six seasons but is still looking for its first appearance in the conference championship game.

USC Upstate

The “SC” in this “USC” stands for South Carolina, as the Spartans hail from, well, Spartanburg and have been eligible for the tourney since 2011.

USC Upstate played in the ASUN for a little over a decade before heading to the Big South in 2018. That move hasn’t helped when you consider they haven’t finished above .500 and have been shut out of every conference championship game held since their arrival.

UT Martin

UT Martin has been a member of the Ohio Valley Conference since 1993, which is also the first year it had the opportunity to make it to March Madness.

The Skyhawks have spent more than 30 years trying (and failing) to add that to their résumé, and a loss to Jacksonville State in the conference championship game in 2017 is the closest they’ve come.

UTRGV

I assume I’m not the only person who needed help interpreting the acronym that refers to the branch of the University of Texas located in Rio Grande Valley.

The Vaqueros have a somewhat complicated history, as the school is the spiritual successor of University of Texas–Pan American, which merged the the system’s Brownsville affiliate in 2015.

Its predecessor headed from the NAIA to DI in the 1960s and first became eligible for the NCAA Tournament in 1969, but it’s still chasing the dream more than 55 years later.

Utah Tech

The team at the school that was “Dixie State University” until 2022 is the last on this list that became eligible for March Madness the year before that change.

The Trailblazers have not gone above .500 during their five seasons in the WAC and seemingly have their work cut out for them going forward after cratering this year while finishing with a 7-26 record and going 2-14 in conference play.

Utah Valley

We’ve got another WAC team hailing from Utah, although the Wolverines have had the chance to get an NCAA Tournament nod since 2010.

Utah Valley has had a few standout seasons since then, which included a 25-8 campaign this year and a 15-1 conference record that gave them the top seed heading into the tournament.

Unfortunately, they ultimately fell to Grand Canyon in the title game, which was also the first time they’ve made it that far.

Western Illinois

The basketball team at Western Illinois has a history stretching back to 1904, and the Leathernecks headed up to DI in the early 1980s and have been eligible for the NCAA Tournament for more than 40 years.

The 2023-24 season was their first in the Ohio Valley after 16 years in the Summit League. They got off to a solid start by going 21-12 but regressed to 12-19 this season while once again failing to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

William & Mary

Army and The Citadel were two of the three teams that haven’t played in the NCAA Tournament since its inception despite being eligible every single year, and William & Mary is the final member of the trio.

The Tribe have been playing at college basketball’s top level since 1906 but don’t have much to show for it close to 120 years later; they’re 0-9 on conference championship games, with the most recent being a loss in the CAA title showdown in 2014.

Youngstown State

We’re capping things off with the team with one of the best nicknames and mascots in all of college sports: the Youngstown State Penguins.

The team has somewhat appropriately been frozen out of the NCAA Tournament since its first year of eligibility all the way back in 1947 (they were DII between 1960 and 1981), and while they played in the Horizon League championship game this season, their hopes were dashed by Robert Morris.