NCAA Basketball Report News

Ranking the 68 teams in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, from Arizona to Lehigh originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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That you are reading this annual exercise means we have a bracket.

That we have a bracket means this is March.

That this is March means we are in the middle of the year’s best month.

Never let this go unappreciated.

MARCH MADNESS HQ: Live NCAA bracket | Full TV schedule | Printable bracket

Yes, it’s our ranking of the teams in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, based not on their regular season accomplishments or how cool their uniforms are but on the likelihood of each winning the championship.

This is impacted by talent, roster composition, coaching and the path each must take through the bracket. A rough draw, and you might fall a few spots. But the best can play their way through any challenge. That’s why we start with a team that has come close – but hasn’t won it in nearly 30 years.

SN AWARDS: All-America team | Boozer Player of the Year | Lloyd Coach of the Year

Ranking the 68 best teams in the NCAA Tournament

1. Arizona. There are those who want not to believe in the Wildcats because they start three freshmen, as if the whole “getting older” idea was the only way to win in basketball. Those who embraced that idea totally missed that UConn built an all-time team in 2023-24 with two freshmen and two sophomores in the rotation. It’s more about who those freshmen are, and the Wildcats’ Koa Peat, Brayden Burries and Ivan Kharchenkov have been as sturdy as veterans. And let’s not forget: All coach Tommy Lloyd needs to do is send in big man Tobe Awaka, and Arizona gets older, tougher and smarter in the three seconds necessary for him to walk from the bench to the floor.

2. Florida. It seems fair to assert the SEC lacked a significant challenger to the Gators, and that their momentum into the tournament is built at least partly on that. But there is no faking that frontcourt. All four components – center Rueben Chinyelu, power forward Alex Condon, small forward Thomas Haugh and backup big Micah Handlogten – own championship rings. And they’ve all greatly improved from a year ago. Will the backcourt hold up against high-end challenges? Xavian Lee and Boogie Fland did not play well in early games against Arizona, Duke and UConn; they shot 32 percent from the floor and 24 percent on threes. They appear to have grown into an effective tandem. It’s still a question of whether the backcourt can meet the frontcourt at the pinnacle.

3. Duke. Although the Blue Devils have been a nightmare to play against — No. 1 in defensive efficiency and probably better than that — they never were ideally situated at point guard on the attacking end. And now, that situation has declined. Because Caleb Foster, the converted shooting guard who’d been their primary ballhandler, likely won’t play until the Final Four because of a broken foot. They can replace him with freshman Cayden Boozer, brother of SN Player of the Year Cameron, but if he clearly were ready, he’d probably would have had the job. That’s why you find the Devils here, and not at the top of the charts.

4. Michigan. It’s a similar story for the Wolverines, but they didn’t lose their starter at the point, but rather an essential backup. L.J. Cason had been delivering 8.4 points a game in just 18 minutes, and he was there in case starter Elliot Cadeau faltered. Which he did in a visit to Northwestern that Cason rescued for UM, as well as a mid-February meeting with Duke. This team still very much can win the title, but that the point guard position has been a nagging concern through all the Wolverines’ success. And there’s no ace reliever now.

BENDER: Eliot Cadeau has been a perfect fit at Michigan

5. Houston. These still are Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars, the program that has managed to remain a defensive force throughout college basketball’s offensive renaissance. So they won’t leave this tournament easily; they fought elimination hard in 2018 (lost on a buzzer beater by Michigan’s Jordan Poole), 2019 (lost on a late Tyler Herro 3-pointer) and 2022 (by six in the Elite Eight to Villanova) and reached the Final Four in 2021 and 2025. In a three-game stretch against Iowa State, Arizona and Kansas, Houston averaged 63 points and veteran guards Emmanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan combined for 20.6 and 29 percent shooting. That can’t continue, or Houston won’t.

6. Iowa State. This may be the best pure defensive team in the nation, in the sense of taking away preferred options, forcing tough shots and inducing brutal possessions from the opposition. What stands between the Cyclones and a possible NCAA title is someone who stands between the opposition and the rim. They block 2.8 shots per game. In the past 15 years, no team has won the title with fewer than 3 per game in that category, and that squad (2018 Villanova) pumped out 127.8 points per 100 possessions compared to Iowa State’s 123.4. Somebody’s going to beat these Cyclones at the rim.

7. Illinois. The Illini never run out of possibilities, which could be their one problem on offense. They have been the most efficient offense in the game, because they can hurt opponents inside and outside. Their outside guys (wing Andrej Stojakovic, guard Kylan Boswell) get the ball to the rim and finish; their inside guys (brothers Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, reserve Ben Humrichous) can strike from distance. Freshman point guard Keaton Wagler helped bring definition to all these possibilities, but it does appear as though he could use the rest delivered by the Illini’s quarterfinal Big Ten Tournament defeat. The defense still is working to reassimilate Boswell after he missed about a month. If the Illini get that right, they’ll be a fearsome opponent.

8. UConn. The Huskies have been aware all along freshman wing Braylon Mullins could be the difference between a Big East contender and an NCAA Championship contender. But Mullins’ multiple injuries cost him time and rhythm, and he’s not consistently been that offensive difference-maker. Maybe he figures it out now. Or maybe he continues to force opportunities that should be dissuaded. The Huskies have five players in double figures, but no one averaging even 14 points. When they need a bucket, they often can’t find an ideal solution. Trust me, that’s going to come up this month.

9. Kansas. Anyone who counts on Darryn Peterson failing on this stage will have plenty of evidence of his propensity – come to think of it, they actually won’t, because so often Peterson didn’t take the stage in the biggest games. Anyone who bets against him will have plenty of reason to sweat that decision, because Peterson is a ridiculous talent. The comparisons to Kobe Bryant aren’t reckless; Darryn might never reach that level, but if he gets even to 80 percent of Kobe, that’s about 27,000 career points. That could be in his reach, and a month of peak Peterson might bring another KU NCAA title within the Jayhawks’ grasp, as well. Still wondering, though, how any team with this guy on it could score in the 40s against any college defense, even one as ferocious as Houston’s.

10. Gonzaga. What would the Zags have been had Braden Huff not injured his knee in mid-January? The original timeline for his recovery was 4-8 weeks. We’re about seven weeks in, and he’s not back. Huff’s remarkable ability to generate floaters in the lane, accurate anywhere from 2 to 12 feet, covered for the lack of a true 3-point attack. The Zags rank just better than 300^th in 3-pointers made per game and, unlike Arizona modest long-distance output, that’s because they’re not good at it. Expect some tough opponent to slow down star big man Graham Ike, and the Zags to be unable to turn to a perimeter game to loosen that grip or overwhelm it.

HISTORY OF UPSETS BY SEED:
16 vs. 1 | 15 vs. 2 | 14 vs. 3 | 13 vs. 4 | 12 vs. 5

11. Michigan State

12. Arkansas

13. Tennessee

14. Texas Tech

15. BYU. Yes, they’ll miss 18-point scorer Richie Saunders. They already have. But this deep into the list, counting on a player as talented and committed as AJ Dybantsa seems wise.

16. St. John’s

17. Purdue

18. Louisville. The Cardinals are not ideally constructed to win it, but a healthy Mikel Brown could carry this team deep into the month. Will we ever see this again while he’s at Louisville, or do we need to wait until he’s jetting around the NBA?

19. Alabama

20. Nebraska

21. North Carolina. I would have loved to see what this team could accomplish with Caleb Wilson active (but not nearly as much as my Heels-fan sister, Rene).

22. Vanderbilt

23. Virginia. Am I underestimating this team? When they’re in the Sweet 16, you’ll say I have. But this list is entirely about winning it all, and that degree of talent just isn’t there. But if there were a list of teams least likely to suffer a seed upset in this event, the Cavs would be No. 1. They never deliver less than expected. What a hire Ryan Odom has been.

24. Wisconsin

25. UCLA

26. Georgia

27. Saint Mary’s

28. Kentucky

29. TCU

30. Ohio State. I might not be the first to tell you – and it’d be cool if I weren’t the last – there is no more gratifying story in this tournament than the arrival of star point guard Bruce Thornton, who stuck with the Buckeyes despite plenty of transfer portal options and no previous NCAA appearances over three seasons. His patience was rewarded with this, and with his name ahead of legends Jerry Lucas, Jimmy Jackson, John Havlicek and Dennis Hopson on the OSU career scoring list.

31. Villanova

32. Saint Louis

33. Iowa

34. Miami Hurricanes

35. Clemson

36. VCU

37. Santa Clara

38. Texas. The luckiest team on this list? These guys, right here. They spent a lot of this season giving the impression they’d rather go on spring break. How does spring break in Dayton sound, fellas?

39. Texas A&M

40. Missouri

41. NC State

42. Utah State

43. Akron

44. Miami RedHawks. It’s beyond me that college sports have gotten to the point where everyone can’t celebrate something as extraordinary as an undefeated season in Division I basketball. My first full year covering college hoops was 1987-88; it’s happened six times since. There have been about 2,800 schools that have played schedules rated 250 or worse in that period. None accomplished what these men did.

45. South Florida

46. UCF

47. SMU

48. McNeese

49. High Point

50. Penn

51. Northern Iowa. Northern Iowa has had the same head coach, Ben Jacobson, since 2006. He is just four victories short of 400 since. The Panthers reached the 20-win mark 11 times, won the conference tournament four times. They’ve almost always been good, occasionally been great. With so many schools diminishing their programs because they’re absolutely certain they can do better, it’s refreshing to know there are some that understand different is not always better.

52. Hofstra

53. Troy

54. Hawai'i

55. Kennesaw State

56. Cal Baptist

57. North Dakota State

58. Wright State

59. Siena

60. Queens

61. Tennessee State

62. Furman

63. LIU

64. Idaho

65. Howard

66. UMBC

67. Lehigh. In the first ever 64-team tournament, the Engineers were the last team in the field, when they won nine games in the regular season and then three in a row to win the East Coast Conference automatic bid. We wrote about that occasion on the 35^th anniversary of the bracket expansion that turned March Madness into America’s perfect sporting event. A lot has changed in four decades. Now their nickname is the Mountain Hawks, and they’ve moved up one spot.

68. Prairie View. There are some similarities between that Lehigh run in ’85 and the ride that carried the Panthers to this field. They needed to win three in a row to close the regular season at .500, then four in five days to claim the SWAC title. They took out three of the league’s four top teams. March Madness already has begun.