The longest NCAA Tournament appearance streaks in history

While it seems like a lot of teams get into the NCAA Tournament every year, entrance into March Madness isn't as easy as it looks. While 68 teams get to hear their name called on Selection Sunday, there are 360 Division I programs competing in the college basketball season, meaning just under 19 percent of teams can participate in a given tournament.

Teams playing in mid-major or smaller conferences have a hard time getting attention on the bubble due to their lack of opportunities to play elite competition, making Gonzaga's presence as a tournament regular a remarkable accomplishment. Even playing in a power conference isn't a guarantee of inclusion as teams like Boston College, California, and DePaul haven't been a threat to go dancing for years.

There are certain blue bloods who have a strong track record of success, but even teams like North Carolina (who missed the tournament in 2023), Duke (who missed out in 2021) and Kentucky (also in 2021) have down years that leave them on the outside looking in. Let's take a look at some of the longest active NCAA Tournament streaks in the country.

Which teams have the longest active NCAA Tournament streaks?

For the purposes of this exercise, we'll list all schools with at least five straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The NCAA doesn't count the canceled 2020 tournament as the end of a tournament streak so that season is excluded from the countdown.

There is an asterisk next to Kansas' appearance on the list because they have technically been on the court for every NCAA Tournament since 1990. The Jayhawks' 2018 appearance was vacated after the fact since the team used forward Silvio De Sousa, a player who was later deemed ineligible for competition, during its run to the Final Four that year.

The NCAA's official leader in the active tournament streak department is Michigan State, which has gone to the dance for 26 straight seasons under Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo. The Spartans have routinely done well in March Madness, winning the national championship in 2000 and going to 10 Final Fours as part of this streak, which will extend again to 27 with Michigan State in line for a 2-seed in the 2025 tournament.

Gonzaga is right behind Michigan State in the active streak department, making the dance every year since 1998, with the 1999 tournament being notable for their Cinderella run to the Elite Eight. The fact that the Bulldogs have been such a consistent entrant despite playing in a conference that routinely sends at most two teams dancing is a credit to the program building of head coach Mark Few, who has set a standard that made the Bulldogs a natural target for an invitation to join the reformed Pac-12 next season.

Longest NCAA Tournament appearance streaks of all time

As mentioned above, Kansas' streak is on here as the longest appearance streak of all time, but it is considered broken in 2018 due to the vacation of that tournament appearance. A similar situation unfolded with Arizona, which was on the court for 25 consecutive NCAA Tournaments between 1985 and 2009 but had its 1999 appearance vacated due to rules violations.

Michigan State and Gonzaga's streaks are towards the top of the list and are within a few years of surpassing both Kansas' official mark and North Carolina's second-place run, which featured the majority of Dean Smith's heyday with the Tar Heels. It is no shock to see this table feature almost all of the notable blue bloods, which makes sense since these schools have rich basketball traditions and the resources to support elite recruiting and coaching.

The most notable streak that was broken recently was Duke's run of 24 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances that dated back to the mid-1990s under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils were poised to extend their streak in 2020 before the tournament was canceled and things fell apart in the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season, bringing an inglorious end to Duke's remarkable NCAA Tournament run.

Another notable trend to mention here is that the majority of these NCAA Tournament streaks come from programs that have established head coaches who built a winning program and sustained it with elite recruiting. A lot the streaks on the above list didn't last much longer when the primary coach departed, such as North Carolina (four appearances after Dean Smith's retirement), Kentucky (one appearance after Tubby Smith's departure) and Cincinnati (which saw its streak end after Bob Huggins' exit).

How hard is it to maintain an NCAA Tournament appearance streak?

The degree of difficulty for maintaining a streak like the ones that Michigan State and Gonzaga are on now will increase significantly in this era where players have increased freedom of movement. The unlimited transfers and increase in NIL compensation have created a more professional-like environment where coaches have to essentially recruit not just new players but also work to keep their own stars in-house.

This new environment has driven away some of the sports' biggest names as Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim and Tony Bennett all stepped away due in part to a lack of desire to adapt to this new world of recruiting at a later stage of their careers. The impact of mega conferences will also make streaks harder to maintain as the power conferences get deeper, making league games more of a grind and setting a stage where it can be tough to reach .500 in your conference if the roster isn't sufficiently stocked.

Izzo and Few seem to have adapted to the new world of college basketball rather well, but time will tell if the model will impact their ability to continue sustaining success. NIL and freedom of movement have become game changers, and time will tell whether these things will make it easier to build streaks of NCAA Tournament appearances or increase the level of parity in college basketball.