When the second round of March Madness finishes up the last game on Sunday, the once-huge tournament field that boasted 68 teams just a few days ago will have been trimmed down to a less than a quarter of that number.
To be exact, just sixteen college teams will remain in the bracket. These 16 college basketball programs comprise what is known as colloquially known asThe Sweet 16 round for both the Women’s and Men’s tournament.
When first announced, the tournament field is a mix of smaller colleges hoping to become a Cinderella, Mid-Majors and big universities. Then there are the Blue Bloods, those college teams that consistently do well season-in and season-out that their name alone brings in top recruits, the best coaches and where an appearance on national television is just another day. These teams have been so historically successful that a season is considered a let down if they don’t make it past the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.
Most NCAA Basketball Sweet 16 Appearances
All that success had us thinking about which college “Blue Bloods” have had the most success? Not only are they at the top of preseason rankings but in the top 25 at the end of the college season, too. In regards to the the tournament, how many times have the program advanced to the Regional Semifinals?
Quick off the top of your head — which teams do you think of? Odds are if you are able to come up with a handful, you’ve probably named a few of those teams correctly.Here’s the 21 college teams that have appeared in the most Sweet Sixteens in NCAA college basketball history.
| Rank | School | Appearances | Last Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | 44 | 2019 |
| 2 | North Carolina | 36 | 2024 |
| 3 | UCLA | 35 | 2022 |
| 4 | Duke | 33 | 2024 |
| 5 | Kansas | 32 | 2022 |
| 6 | Louisville | 24 | 2015 |
| 6 | Syracuse | 24 | 2021 |
| 8 | Indiana | 22 | 2016 |
| 9 | Arizona | 21 | 2024 |
| 10 | Michigan State | 20 | 2019 |
| 11 | Villanova | 19 | 2022 |
| 12 | Connecticut | 18 | 2024 |
| 13 | Kansas State | 17 | 2018 |
| 13 | Notre Dame | 17 | 2016 |
| 13 | Michigan | 17 | 2022 |
| 16 | Marquette | 16 | 2013 |
| 16 | Utah | 16 | 2015 |
| 18 | Ohio State | 14 | 2013 |
| 18 | Maryland | 14 | 2002 |
| 18 | Arkansas | 14 | 2023 |
| 18 | Purdue | 14 | 2024 |
| 18 | Houston | 14 | 2024 |
| 23 | Cincinnati | 13 | 1996 |
| 23 | Gonzaga 13 | 2024 | |
| 25 | San Francisco | 12 | 1974 |
Yes, there’s no surprise to see North Carolina or Duke at the top of the list, nor should it shock you to see historically-great teams like Kentucky and UCLA, but you might be surprised to others. Without looking these four teams have produced some of the best college players in the history of the game: Lew Alcindor, Christian Laettner, Bill Walton, Sam Perkins, Michael Jordan, Phil Ford, Dan Issel, Jamal Mashburn, J.J. Redick, Grant Hill, Tyler Hansbrough, Walt Hazzard, Anthony Davis, Danny Ferry, Shane Battier, James Worthy, and Ralph Beard.
Now see which college basketball teams have the most Elite Eight appearances.
The two things that initially stuck out were at the extreme top and bottom of the list. With their success in the earlier decades of college basketball, Kentucky has by far the most Sweet 16 appearances. At the bottom of this honorable list is San Francisco, the school led by All-American centers Bill Russell (1950’s) and Bill Cartwright (1970’s), appeared in 12 Sweet Sixteens, but hasn’t advanced to that round in over 40 years. The last times the Dons were in the Sweet 16 was 1974.
To me the biggest surprises in the list were smack dab in the middle. Marquette, Kansas State and Utah obviously has been successful programs, but they wouldn’t have been in my list if I were to list out my top 20. Shows how much I know about college basketball.
When looking at the above table it’s important to note that the NCAA tournament started in 1939 and in the next decade included a grand total of eight teams in the entire tournament field. It would remain at eight teams (thus, where the “Elite Eight” came from) when the tournament field doubled to sixteen teams for the 1951-52 season. The following season, the committee opened up the field again, but included 22-25 teams. That’s the way things played out until 1975 when the tournament field was expanded to 32 teams. The year it went officially to a 32 team field was when all teams had to now to win to advance.
The Most Sweet 16 Appearances From 1985
So when it comes to which teams have appeared in the most Sweet 16s since the field was at least 64 teams in 1985 are as follows:
| Rank | School | # | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duke | 25 | 2019 |
| 2 | North Carolina | 23 | 2019 |
| 3 | Kansas | 21 | 2017 |
| 3 | Kentucky | 21 | 2019 |
| 5 | Arizona | 17 | 2017 |
| 6 | Michigan State | 16 | 2019 |
| 7 | Louisville | 14 | 2015 |
| 7 | Connecticut | 14 | 2014 |
| 7 | Syracuse | 14 | 2017 |
| 7 | UCLA | 14 | 2017 |
The above probably feels a lot more familiar as it displays more recent success. On top of that it’s a better comparison as we’re now looking at apples-to-apples in terms of the number of teams included and a standardized understanding of what it takes to make it to the “Sweet 16.”
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an easy way to list out the women’s NCAA teams that have the most Sweet Sixteen occurrences, but we’re working on it (Pssssst… without the data, we’re confident thatUConn is #1 and Tennessee is #2with Stanford, Louisiana Tech and Notre Dame somewhere in the top ten). Stay tuned.
