National Review: NCAA Tourney History State-By-State Winners and Sinners

No state is close to winning as much as two-thirds of its NCAA Tournament games and none has as many as five different schools with winning playoff records. The champio Michigan Wolverines had reached the 2018 NCAA final instead of the Kansas Jayhawks enabling Michigan (.6284) to nudge ahead of Kansas (.6279) as the state with highest all-time winning percentage before the Michigan State Spartans padded the state's advantage with a 2019 Final Four appearance, both schools reaching at least the Sweet 16 each of the last two years (elevating state's winning percentage to in excess of 64%). Kansas, one of 20 states represented by four or fewer members in the U.S. House of Representatives, is represented much more in the NCAA playoffs by ranking eighth with 176 victories from only three universities although Kansas posted the state's only triumph in the last three years.

Pennsylvania - Lehigh, Penn and Villanova - sustained three opening-round exits in 2026. Oklahoma, one of the 13 states securing more than 100 all-time NCAA tourney triumphs, failed to have any representation this year. Texas had the most participants last year with five and this season with seven. With neither UK and Louisville reaching the Final Four since 2015, California passed the Commonwealth in total NCAA playoff triumphs. Additional stately views of national winners and sinners you might want to review include:

• Despite going winless in 2021 and notching only one victory in 2023, schools from the state of North Carolina have collected more NCAA Tournament triumphs (352 after Duke reached regional final this year) than a total of 22 states including those with power-conference members such as Georgia, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey and West Virginia.
• All four ACC members in Carolina have more than 25 playoff triumphs. Each of them (Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest) has more all-time wins than entire states such as Colorado, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
• California is the only state with as many as 18 schools winning at least one NCAA Tournament game. Alas, fewer than 1/6 of them (four) have winning marks.
• Other than Syracuse, Canisius is the only current New York Division I school to compile a winning NCAA playoff record (6-4) as the state went winless in 2023. CCNY, the NCAA's DI champion in 1950, assembled a 4-2 mark ledger before de-emphasizing its program.
• Villanova (plus 31 in PA; 71-40) and Syracuse (plus 29 in NY; 70-41) are the most games above .500 in states with overall losing playoff marks. On the flip side, Miami OH (minus 13; 7-20) and Murray State KY (minus 13; 5-18) are tied for most games below .500 in states with overall winning worksheets.
• Abilene Christian enabled Texas earlier this decade to briefly nudge ahead of California for most different schools participating in the tourney with 24 although Baylor and Houston are the only institutions from the Lone Star State posting a winning record. Texas has a total of 15 Final Four teams but is more games under .500 than any state (minus 29 including nine different participants never winning a playoff contest). California moved back ahead of Texas with 25 delegates after UC San Diego and California Baptist made their playoff debuts the past two tourneys.
• None of Louisiana's 13 schools appearing in the playoffs have notched a winning record. South Carolina has the most universities participate in the tourney (nine) without any of them posting a break-even or winning playoff record. Kansas has only three different colleges appear in the NCAA Tournament but boasts more than six times as many victories as entire state of South Carolina and in excess of four times as many triumphs as all of Louisiana.
• All six Mid-American Conference members from Ohio have losing records, combining for a 21-59 mark (.263).
• Tennessee, the winningest state in NCAA playoff history despite never having a national champion, is the only state with as many as six schools at least five games below .500 in NCAA tourney competition.
• Virginia is the only one of 13 different schools from its state to post a winning record.
• Memphis (35-29) is joined by Spokane, Wash.-based Gonzaga (48-28) as the only mid-major schools leading a state with total of more than 40 playoff wins.
• The only two states with fewer than 50 tourney triumphs assembling overall winning records are Nevada (39-30 by 6-11 Nevada and 33-19 UNLV) plus New Hampshire (10-7 by Dartmouth).
• Utah is the only state saddled with as many as three schools posting tourney marks more than 10 games below .500 - Brigham Young (17-36), Utah State (8-28) and Weber State (6-17).

Plagiarist Biledumb, despite big tech and much of #MessMedia hiding details about his soap-opera family, "showers" prospect of success telling truth about attending HBCU Delaware State a mite more than the NCAA Tournament win total of the state he served as Senator because Delaware is 0-7. At least four different schools from Texas posted a minimum of one NCAA tourney triumph for the fifth straight year as the Longhorn State secured the most wins in 2026 with nine. Following are NCAA Division I playoff cumulative records listed by most state victories through 2026:

NOTE: Two states - Alaska and Maine - never had a school participate in the NCAA Division I Tournament.