1) Duquesne

When Northwestern made its NCAA Tournament debut in 2017, that left Duquesne as arguably the biggest program in the country without an appearance. A member of the Atlantic 10 since 1982, the Dukes (who are based in Pittsburgh) have reached the conference tournament final just once. That was as a #7 seed in 2009 and they put up a fight in that game before falling to Temple, 69-64. Other than that, Duquesne has been eliminated in the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinals or earlier in 24 of the last 25 seasons. They’ve finished in the top four in the league’s standings just once, in ’10-’11, and have never been even a consideration as an at-large tournament bid. Things weren’t always this way for the Dukes, as their program history includes Final Four appearances in 1940 and 1952, back when they were an independent school. Things have been trending up lately under new coach Keith Dambrot, who led them to a 21-9 record in the ’19-’20 season before COVID shut down proceedings.

2) Maine

While their longtime America East Conference rivals Hartford made its tournament debut in 2021, for Maine it was the ultimate lost season, marking another year in their drought. The Black Bears have had just eight winning seasons in the last 36 years and the most recent was way back in ’09-’10. Their last 14 America East Tournament appearances have ended in the quarterfinals or earlier but prior to that they did make it to the final round five times. Four of those five games ended in double digit losses for Maine, so even the precipice of a tourney bid has been a fleeting goal. Even with all those indignities, ’20-’21 was a new low for the program, as they were forced to opt out of the remainder of their season after just nine games due to repeated COVID protocol violations.

3) Houston Baptist

While most of the schools on this list have had ample opportunities to play their way off of it, Houston Baptist can rely on the excuse that they’ve only been eligible for the NCAA Tournament since 2016. Granted, they haven’t even come close in most of those seasons, reaching the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals just once. That was in their first season of eligibility, ’15-’16, when the Huskies finished fourth in the conference, defeated Southeastern Louisiana in the quarterfinals but then were blown out by eventual conference champ Stephen F. Austin in the semis. Interestingly enough, Houston Baptist actually qualified for the last NCAA Tournament of the pre-modern era, making it in as an automatic bid out of the now defunct Trans America Athletic Conference in 1984. Soon after that, the school’s athletic department disbanded briefly due to an NCAA rules violation, then returned in 1991 as an NAIA program before transitioning back to Division I in 2010.

4) Toledo

Toledo’s football program has been the class of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in the 21st century, with three conference titles and 12 bowl game appearances, but basketball is a much different story. The Rockets last had major success back in the late ’70s, when coach Bob Nichols led them to three consecutive MAC titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances, even pulling off an upset of Iowa in 1979. Though the program has remained competitive since, with 28 winning seasons out of the last 40, they’ve repeatedly come up short in the MAC Tournament. In fact, the Rockets have lost in the tournament final five times, including as recently as 2018, and twice entered the tourney as the #1 seed but were upset in the semifinals, including in 2021 when they were defeated by Ohio.

5) Columbia
6) Dartmouth

In a conference with just eight teams, you’d think by sheer luck one or both of these schools would break through at least once and win a title. But the Ivy League has been dominated by Princeton and Penn, who have combined to win 24 of the last 35 league titles, with Harvard and Cornell winning four each, Yale two, and Brown one, way back in 1986. That leaves Columbia and Dartmouth, who have not only failed to win a conference championship but have regularly finished in the bottom half of the standings. Dartmouth last placed third place or better back in ’98-’99, while Columbia has managed it just once in the last 20 years. Both programs have an ancient history of NCAA Tournament success, with Dartmouth reaching the National Final in 1942 and 1944, led by future NBA All-Star Dick McGuire, while Columbia was in the tournament as recently as 1968.

7) Central Arkansas

When Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen took the floor for the Central Arkansas basketball team in the mid ’80s, they were not a Division I program. In fact, they weren’t even Division II, they were in the NAIA, which essentially serves as the third tier of college sports in the U.S. Thanks in part to Pippen’s success, the school grew enough to jump to Division II in the ’90s and then to Division I in 2006. They’ve been NCAA Tournament eligible since ’10-’11, failing to qualify for the Southland Conference Tournament most years and yet to advance past the quarterfinals when they do. Aside from Pippen, the program has also yet to produce a second NBA player.

8) Virginia Military Institute (VMI)

Founded in 1839 as America’s first state military college, VMI has been fielding a basketball team since 1908, marking it as one of the oldest continuous programs in the country. In over a century of play, the school has made just three NCAA Tournament appearances, most recently in 1979. Over the last 36 years, split between the Southern and Big South conferences, VMI has finished with a winning record eight times and won 20+ games twice. They’ve reached the championship round of a conference tournament five times and lost each of them, most recently in the Big South in 2012. Not that VMI has been boring to watch that whole time. Under coach Duggar Baucom in the late ’00s, they instituted a high octane, run-and-gun offense and led the NCAA in team scoring for five consecutive seasons.

9) St. Francis (NY)

The oldest basketball program in New York (they’ve based in Brooklyn and alternatively referred to as St. Francis-Brooklyn), St. Francis started play in 1896 and they are one of three original Division I programs (since 1939) to never make an NCAA Tournament (we’ll get to the other two later). Not that they haven’t come close. A charter member of the Northeast Conference, the Terriers have reached the conference tournament final three times without prevailing. Most disappointing had to be ’14-’15, when Conference Player of the Year Jalen Cannon led them to the regular season title but they were upset in the tournament final by Robert Morris. Or maybe it was ’00-’01, when they also entered the tournament as the #1 seed but were knocked out in the final round by Monmouth.

10) Tennessee Tech

Though they’re a decent sized public university, founded over a century ago, Tennessee Tech has almost no athletics accomplishments. That is, save for the sport of rifle shooting, where they were a dynastic force in the early ’80s, earning three consecutive NCAA titles. Basketball… not so much, with no NCAA Tournament appearances since 1963. In the modern era, the Purple Eagles have come up just short of a return appearance numerous times, losing in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament final in 2002, 2003, and 2011. That first appearance was the bitterest pill of the three, as Tennessee Tech had dominated the regular season, finishing 15-1 in conference play, but were upended by Murray State in a game that came down to the final possession.

11) Seattle

In 2009, after nearly three decades at the NAIA and Division II level, Seattle University made its return to Division I basketball. Their current iteration has been much less successful than their first stint at the Division I level. Seattle was a powerhouse program in the ’50s, making five NCAA Tournament appearances in the decade, culminating in the legendary Elgin Baylor leading them to the National Final in 1958. Though the program remained stellar through the ’60s, it soon after fell into financial hardship and in 1980 downgraded to an NAIA program. They returned again for the ’09-’10 season and joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Their first coach in Division I was Cameron Dollar, a veteran of the ’94-’95 UCLA title team but he managed just one winning season in seven years. The Redhawks did reach the cusp of March Madness in 2015, making it to the WAC final but losing in a blowout to New Mexico State.

12) William & Mary

Another member of the trivia question of the three original NCAA programs (since 1939) to never make an NCAA Tournament, William & Mary joins St. Francis (NY) and The Citadel on that list. Basketball was just a distant dream of a sport when the Virginia-based college was founded in 1693, making it the second oldest higher learning institution in the U.S. (after Harvard). Their basketball program is now 116 years old and has never reached the NCAA Tournament in the modern or any other era. Perhaps it’s karma for the school’s insistence on keeping the name Indians up until 1978, when they changed it to the still iffy Tribe. That would certainly explain the fact that William & Mary has made it to an NCAA Tournament bid clinching game nine times, and lost all of them. That includes Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament final appearances in 2008, 2010, 2014, and 2015. In 2014, William & Mary were the #1 seed and featured future NBA draftee Marcus Thornton, but got easily upended in the tournament’s final round by Northeastern. Thornton had a chance for redemption in 2015, but missed a potential buzzer beater winner as William & Mary lost 75-74 to Delaware.

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By the numbers: Longest current tournament droughts amongst teams with at least one NCAA Tournament appearance in modern era (as of the 2021 tournament)

34 years: Brown, Jacksonville	Artis Gilmore led Jacksonville on a surprise Final Four run in 1970 with upsets of Iowa and Kentucky along the way, but they’ve made just four tournament appearances since and lost in the first round each time
33 years: Idaho State, Marist	Now a strong contender for worst Division I program, Idaho State was a powerhouse in the ’50s, reaching the Sweet 16 four times during the decade
30 years: Idaho, Loyola Marymount	Inspired by the sudden death of their teammate Hank Gathers, LMU made a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight as a #11 seed in their last tournament appearance in 1990
29 years: Louisiana Tech, St. Francis (PA), Towson State	Karl Malone led Louisiana Tech to the Sweet 16 in the first modern era tournament in 1985, where they almost upset top seed Oklahoma
28 years: Campbell, Fordham, Georgia Southern, Howard	The Fighting Camels of Campbell almost broke their streak in 2021, reaching the finals of the Big South Conference Tournament
27 years: East Carolina	The Pirates are now a member of the prestigious AAC but have compiled just two winning seasons over the last 20 years
26 years: Rider, Tennessee State	Each of these schools made back-to-back appearances in 1993 and 1994 and have not returned since
25 years: Florida International, Tulane	FIU turned to Isiah Thomas as coach in 2009 to break their drought but he finished with a 26-65 record over three seasons

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13) Youngstown State

Led by legendary coach Dom Rosselli, Youngstown State was a major contender in Division II basketball in the ’60s and ’70s, making nine tournament appearances in a 16 year stretch. Since transitioning to Division I in ’81-’82 (which was Rosselli’s 38th and final season as coach), the Penguins have much less prominence in postseason play. They almost made the first modern NCAA Tournament field in 1985, losing a close game against Middle Tennessee in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) Tournament championship. The Eastern Ohio-based Penguins were then blown out in the final round of the 1998 Mid-Continent Conference Tournament by Valparaiso and have labored in vain since. In fact, since joining the Horizon League in ’01-’02, Youngstown State has made the conference tournament semifinals just once, in 2017, and never as far as the final. The school’s football program has remained in Division II (now called the Football Championship Subdivision) and was a powerhouse in the ’90s, playing in six national championship games and winning four of them under later Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.

14) Grambling

Nicknamed the “Bayou Classic,” Grambling vs. Southern is one of the most hallowed and competitive rivalries in college football, with the teams near even in terms of head-to-head wins and conference titles over the last half century. Basketball is a much different scenarioo, where Southern has a 67-35 all-time record against Grambling and has won nine Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC) titles compared to Grambling’s zero. Perhaps the best microcosm of this “rivalry” came in the 1987 SWAC Tournament, where Grambling was the #1 seed but were annihilated in the championship round by #2 seed Southern (and their star point guard Avery Johnson) by a final score of 105-55. The Tigers have returned to the SWAC final twice since, losing again to Southern in 1988 and then to Alabama State in 2011. Though their recent history includes deplorable efforts like an 0-28 record in ’11-’12, Grambling seems to be turning things around under current coach Donte Jackson, who guided the team to a .500 or better record each of the last four seasons.

15) Stetson

Yes, this Central Florida private school is named after the 19th century hat maker John B. Stetson, who gave numerous significant endowments in the university’s early days. Its nickname, the Hatters, is also an ode to their namesake, as is their cowboy mascot named “John B.” It’s difficult to take any of that particularly seriously and the basketball program results seem to reflect it. Having joined in ’85-’86, Stetson is the longest tenured current member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (formerly called the Trans America Athletic Conference) but have never won the conference tournament. They reached the championship game three times, losing to Georgia Southern in 1987, Central Florida in 1994, and Florida-Gulf Coast in 2016. That final instance was at least an entertaining run, with Stetson reaching the finals despite entering the tournament as the #7 seed. It was a lone recent bright spot for the Hatters, who haven’t recorded a record above .500 since ’00-’01. In contrast to their basketball results, Stetson has been arguably the best baseball program in the Atlantic Sun since the late ’80s, making 16 College World Series appearances in the last 33 years and producing two Cy Young award winners in Corey Kluber and Jacob de Grom. 

16) CCNY
17) NYU

Though it was invented in Massachusetts and its earliest pro leagues were based mainly in the Midwest, basketball’s heart and soul for much of the 20th century was New York. This started on the city’s widespread public outdoor courts and spread to its high schools and colleges. Up until the 1960s, the city’s big rivalry was New York University (NYU) vs. City College of New York (CCNY). CCNY was the more successful program, becoming the first and only school to win the NCAA Tournament and NIT in the same year in 1950. But NYU, which never won a title but did make a Final Four appearance in 1960, had the more impressive matriculation, producing 21 future NBA players, including Hall of Fame inductees Dolph Schayes and Satch Sanders. Both were forced out of Division I for vastly different reasons. NYU just plain ran out of money, with the school suffering a budget crisis in the early ’70s and disbanding its athletic department in response. The basketball program returned in the early ’80s but as a Division III participant. CCNY was the center of a point shaving scandal in 1951 with seven players from that ’49-’50 championship admitting to taking money to influence final scores. They kept their athletic department alive but defunded it and dropped the basketball program down to Division III, where it remains today.

18) Rice

Arguably ahead of Duquesne as the most prominent program without a modern era NCAA Tournament appearance, Rice (which is based in Houston) was a longtime member of the now defunct Southwest Conference (SWC) alongside high profile teams like Texas, Houston, and Arkansas. While those schools moved on to success in the SEC or Big 12, Rice has toiled away first in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and later in Conference USA. Over the last 36 years across those three conferences, the Owls have reached a conference tournament semifinals seven times but never the championship round. Their most recent stint in Conference USA has been especially fruitless with tournament exits in the quarterfinals or earlier each of the last 13 years. Rice does have four NCAA Tournament appearances in its history, most recently in 1970. Their program has also produced one NBA All-Star in Ricky Pierce, who was a first round draft pick from the school in 1982.

19) Bowling Green

Situated almost exactly halfway between the basketball hotbeds of Cleveland and Detroit, Bowling Green certainly can’t use location as an excuse for its basketball program struggles. The Falcons have been a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) since the early ’50s but last won the conference title back in ’67-’68, also the last time they made an NCAA Tournament appearance. Since the MAC instituted a conference tournament in 1980, Bowling Green has reached the championship round just twice, losing to Kent State in 2002 and to Buffalo in 2019. They entered the 2000 tournament as the #1 seed, led by Conference Player of the Year Anthony Stacey, but were upset by Miami (OH) in the quarterfinals. The last time Bowling Green won a game in the NCAA Tournament was 1963, when Hall of Fame center Nate Thurmond led them to the Sweet 16. They have been invited to six postseason NIT tournaments since 1985, losing in the first round each time.

20) Furman

It’s been over four decades since Furman won its last Southern Conference title and made the subsequent NCAA Tournament appearance that goes along with it. But the program dominated the conference in the ’70s, winning six titles in a 10 year stretch. They added an NCAA Tournament win to the resume as well in 1974, upsetting in-state rival South Carolina in a first round game. But coach Joe Williams moved on to Florida State and the Paladins struggled in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s, with 21 losing seasons over a 30 year stretch. Things have turned around lately and unlike most of the teams on this list, Furman has had experience as a “bubble” team. In ’18-’19, they pulled off an early season upset of Villanova, spent three weeks in the AP top 25 and entered the Southern Conference Tournament on the bubble, but had their hopes dashed by a semifinal loss to UNC Greensboro. The Paladins have reached the conference’s tournament final twice, both times in Cinderella runs as a #10 seed, losing to Davidson in 2002 and Wofford in 2016.

21) New Hampshire

We’ve never built a metrics framework to determine this and one day maybe we will, but in the meantime it’s safe to declare New Hampshire is a prime candidate for worst NCAA program of the modern era. Not only have they not made an NCAA Tournament appearance, they’ve never really come close. In the America East Conference, the Wildcats have finished in the top three in the regular season standings just twice in the last 36 years, have reached the tournament semifinals only nine times, and have never made it as far as the championship game. 30 of their last 36 seasons have ended with a losing record and in 14 of those seasons they managed to lose 75% or more of the games they played. We could go on but it’s all just to say that it’s been a rough few decades for New Hampshire but things have been trending up lately. Bill Herrion took over as coach in 2005 and has slowly rebuilt them into respectability, with winning seasons in four of the last seven years.

22) The Citadel

It’s never a good sign when an acclaimed author writes a memoir about his time on your basketball team and titles it “My Losing Season.” So it goes for The Citadel, which completes our trilogy of original NCAA teams without a tournament appearance, The Bulldogs have truly never come close since 1985. A public military school in South Carolina, The Citadel has had consistently solid baseball and football programs over the years but never anything impressive on the basketball court. In the last 35 Southern Conference Tournaments, they’ve reached as far as the semifinals just twice, in 1985 and 1998, and never the championship round. Lately, they’ve at least been exciting to watch, executing the same run-and-gun offense that coach Duggar Baucom had implemented at VMI.

23) Oklahoma City

After the NCAA split into the Division I, II, and III designations in 1973, the governing body began implementing a series of new regulations to maintain standards. This caused numerous programs to drop their affiliation altogether and join the rival NAIA, most notably amongst them Oklahoma City University. Joining the NCAA in 1950, Oklahoma City was a consistent contender in its first 15 years, reaching the NCAA Tournament 10 times and the Sweet 16 six times. But the Stars (formerly known as the Chiefs) failed up to keep up financially with increasing competition in the ’70s. Citing specifically the NCAA regulation that Division I schools had to maintain at least six sports in their athletic department, Oklahoma City defected in 1985 for the NAIA, just as the NCAA Tournament was entering the modern era. Their six NAIA national championships are the all-time record.

24) Army

For 11 seasons in the ’60s and ’70s, Army was coached by two of the four winningest coaches in NCAA history, Mike Krzyzewski and Bobby Knight. If neither of those legends can lead them to their NCAA Tournament debut then what chance does anyone else have? (Note that technically, Army was invited to the 1968 NCAA Tournament but Knight turned it down for an NIT bid). Perhaps Army can draw inspiration from their longtime rival Navy, which has made six tournament appearances in the modern era, including a run to the Elite Eight in 1986. Meanwhile, Army has languished mostly at the bottom of the Patriot League standings, with just four winning seasons in the last 36 years and no one season with 20 or more wins. They have never reached a Patriot League Tournament final since joining the conference as a charter member in 1991 though they have made it to the semifinals eight times, including in 2021. As for their rivalry with Navy, Army is 40-69 all-time but have turned things around lately, winning seven of the last 11 match-ups.