Daniel Wilco | NCAA.com | March 17, 2019 March Madness: Tracking the 43 teams that have never made the NCAA tournament There's no escaping the nerves on Selection Sunday Share In the long history of the 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 3,293 total spots available. Yet, of the 353 basketball teams currently in Division I, 43 have never played in the NCAA tournament. Below is the full list, and where each stands in its conference tournament. A reminder, winning a conference tournament grants a team an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Gardner-Webb will make its first NCAA tournament this year after winning the Big South tournament. Team Conference Tourn. start Tourn. end Tourn. status N.J.I.T. A-Sun March 4 March 10 Lost in semifinals Kennesaw State A-Sun March 4 March 10 Lost in quarterfinals Stetson A-Sun March 4 March 10 DNP Hartford AEC March 9 March 16 Lost in semifinals UMass-Lowell AEC March 9 March 16 Lost in quarterfinals New Hampshire AEC March 9 March 16 DNP Maine AEC March 9 March 16 Lost in quarterfinals Sacramento St. Big Sky March 13 March 16 Lost in quarterfinals High Point Big South March 5 March 10 Lost in quarterfinals Gardner-Webb Big South March 5 March 10 Big South Champ Presbyterian Big South March 5 March 10 Lost in quarterfinals Longwood Big South March 5 March 10 Lost in first round USC Upstate Big South March 5 March 10 Lost in first round UC Riverside Big West March 14 March 16 Lost in quarterfinals William & Mary CAA March 9 March 12 Lost in quarterfinals Elon CAA March 9 March 12 Lost in first round Youngstown St. Horizon March 5 March 12 Lost in quarterfinals Quinnipiac MAAC March 7 March 11 Lost in quarterfinals Bethune-Cookman MEAC March 12 March 16 Lost in first round Savannah St. MEAC March 12 March 16 Lost in first round Maryland-ES MEAC March 12 March 16 Lost in first round St. Francis (BKN) NEC March 6 March 12 Lost in quarterfinals Sacred Heart NEC March 6 March 12 Lost in quarterfinals Bryant NEC March 6 March 12 Lost in quarterfinals Tennessee-Martin OVC March 6 March 9 Lost in quarterfinals SIUE OVC March 6 March 9 Lost in first round Army Patriot March 5 March 13 Lost in quarterfinals Citadel Southern March 8 March 11 Lost in first round Central Ark. Southland March 13 March 16 Lost in first quarterfinals Abilene Christian Southland March 13 March 16 2 seed Incarnate Word Southland March 13 March 16 Did not qualify South Dakota Summit March 9 March 12 Lost in the first round Denver Summit March 9 March 12 DNP IPFW Summit March 9 March 12 Lost in semifinals Nebraska-Omaha Summit March 9 March 12 Lost in final Western Illinois Summit March 9 March 12 Lost in semifinals Grambling SWAC March 12 March 16 Lost in semifinals Utah Valley WAC March 14 March 16 Lost in semifinals Grand Canyon WAC March 14 March 16 Lost in final UTRGV WAC March 14 March 16 Lost in semifinals UMKC WAC March 14 March 16 Lost in quarterfinals Chicago State WAC March 14 March 16 Lost in quarterfinals California Baptist and North Alabama moved to Division I this season. They are not eligible for the tournament until they complete the transition during the 2021-22 season. 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. VIRGINIA WINS 2019 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Virginia beats Texas Tech in OT | 3 takeaways from UVA's first title 2019 final bracket | Print bracket | How'd you do? Highlights & features | Shop Final Four gear Full championship history 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 Round of 32. The other four teams to have been eligible for every tournament and not been dancing once are Army, St. Francis (NY), 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. Conference Teams that have never made NCAAT Teams WAC 6 California Baptist, Chicago State, Grand Canyon, UMKC, Utah Valley, UTRGV Big South 4 High Point, Longwood, Presbyterian, USC Upstate Summit 5 Denver, IPFW, Omaha, South Dakota, Western Illinois A-Sun 4 Kennesaw State, NJIT, North Alabama, Stetson AEC 4 Hartford, Maine, New Hampshire, UMass-Lowell MEAC 3 Bethune-Cookman, Maryland-ES, Savannah State NEC 3 Bryant, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (BKN) Southland 3 Abilene Christian, Central Arkanasas, Incarnate Word CAA 2 Elon, William & Mary OVC 2 SIUE, UT-Martin Big Sky 1 Sacramento St. Big West 1 UC Riverside Horizon 1 Youngstown St. MAAC 1 Quinnipiac Patriot 1 Army Southern 1 Citadel SWAC 1 Grambling But of course, the list of 44 isn't made up of basketball's blue bloods. You'll find no Power 5 teams among the uninvited. For the most part, these aren't teams that will find themselves ranked in the AP Top 25 and earn a spot in the NCAA tournament on their resumes alone. Realistically speaking, the best option for virtually any of these teams to make the NCAA tournament will be to win their conference tournament, a feat that grants an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the winners of all 32 conferences. College basketball rankings: Even unranked teams find success in the NCAA tournament Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 — its modern format — only four of 35 national champions were unranked to start the season. That’s about one in every nine years. READ MORE Only .025 percent predicted the 2021 Final Four teams in the Bracket Challenge Game UCLA's upset of No. 1 Michigan in the Elite Eight turned what could have been a record-high number of perfect picks into a tiny number that went 4-for-4. READ MORE A huge majority of NCAA brackets have a No. 1 seed winning the 2021 championship Here is how many brackets predicted each seed to win the national championship, from Gonzaga and the No. 1 seeds through Drexel and the rest of the No. 16 seeds. READ MORE