When is the last time a Power 6 team didn't win March Madness and who was it?

When you're filling out your bracket for the NCAA Tournament, the smart money is to pick a team from a Power 6 conference to win the NCAA Tournament. Since the advent of the NCAA Tournament in 1939, 63 of the 84 national champions have come from one of the power conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC), a staggering 75 percent success rate.

The worm could start turning outside the Power 6 in the new era of college basketball, where the transfer portal and NIL has altered the playing field to take some power away from traditional heavyweights. With that being said, it's been a minute since a non-Power 6 team won the NCAA Tournament.

Who is the last non-Power 6 team to win the National Championship?

It may not feel like the spirit of the question, but the answer is technically the UCONN Huskies. Left in the American Athletic Conference after the Big East breakup in 2013, the Huskies went on a stunning run to the national title as a 7-seed in 2014.

UCONN's title was the second consecutive title that the American won after Louisville took home the national title during their gap year in the conference in 2013. That title was later vacated, leaving the American with only one national title to its name.

The last true non-Power 6 team to cut down the nets was UNLV in 1990, when the Runnin' Rebels dominated the country on their way to a national title. Jerry Tarkanian's team nearly repeated the following year as they carried an undefeated record into the Final Four before getting upset by Duke.

The 2024 NCAA Tournament features a slew of strong teams outside the power conferences, including some elite Mountain West programs, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's from the WCC, and Dayton from the A-10. Time will tell if any of these squads can deny the power conferences yet another national title.