The land of 346 - D1 College Basketball

Of all the sports I follow in this world, nothing comes as close to NCAA Division 1 college basketball in terms of sheer numbers of teams involved in the chase for ultimate glory. All told there are 346 Division 1 Men's college basketball teams. That's an average of about 7 teams per state. By comparison, Division 1 football, officially termed the Football Bowl Championship division has 120 teams, or about 1/3 of basketball.

I consider myself a connoisseur of college basketball. I can, if given enough time, name all 346 teams and maybe name about 2/3 of their mascot names. But for the majority of casual sports fans, up to as many as half of the teams may be completely unrecognized. There are 32 conferences in college basketball and all but 7 teams lie within those, the rest are classified as independents.

The state breakdowns are remarkable, unless you live in Alaska or outside of the US, you have a team in your state that plays D1 basketball. And if you live in Alaska, you can still count on 2 things, you have D1 hockey and you can see Russia from your house. California alone has 24 teams, followed by New York (22), and Texas (21). Rounding out the Top 10 is: North Carolina (18), Pennsylvania (14), Virginia (14), Florida (13), Illinois (13), Ohio (13), Louisiana (12), South Carolina (12), Tennessee (12), and let's throw in the Hoosier State, Indiana with 10 teams.

These states that lack an NBA team have more than a couple to pick from. Alabama (9), Maryland (9), Connecticut (7), Kentucky (6), Mississippi (6), Arkansas (5), Missouri (5), Washington (5), Iowa (4), Rhode Island (4), Idaho (3), Kansas (3)

The great divide can happen in these states when deciding between only 2: Delaware or Delaware State, Montana or Montana State, Nebraska or Creighton, Nevada or UNLV, New Hampshire or Dartmouth, New Mexico or New Mexico State, North Dakota or North Dakota State, South Dakota or South Dakota State, and West Virginia or Marshall.

And if you happen to live in a state with only one D1 team (like me), you have no choice but to put all your hopes into these teams: Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wyoming.

Of the 346 teams, 75 of them must share their home city with at least 1 other team if not more. There are 20 cities with 2 teams and 9 with even more. The cities (city proper only, not suburbs), that carry more than 2 teams are: New York (Columbia, Fordham, Long Island, Manhattan, St. John’s, St. Francis, and Wagner), Philadelphia (Drexel, La Salle, Penn, St. Joseph's, and Temple), Washington DC (American, George Washington, Georgetown, and Howard), Chicago (Chicago State, DePaul, Loyola, and Illinois-Chicago), Nashville (Belmont, Lipscomb, Tennessee State, and Vanderbilt), Houston (Houston, Houston Baptist, Rice, and Texas Southern), Los Angeles (Cal State-Northridge, Loyola Marymount, UCLA, and USC), Baltimore (Coppin State, Loyola, and Morgan State), and Charleston (Charleston Southern, The Citadel, and College of Charleston).

Directional schools litter the landscape. I'm talking about colleges that use north, south, east, west, central, or middle in their names. There are 58 teams that use directions in their name, with North being the most prevalent at 21. Some schools go even beyond and use a combination of directions: Northeastern, Northwestern, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, and Southeast Missouri State.

School names can get so long they are often abbreviated making for easier references. UNLV, USC, LSU, BYU and UCLA are well known and to even a casual fan needs no further explanation, but these schools might require a little interpretation: UAB - University of Alabama Birmingham, Cal Poly SLO - California Polytechnic Institute San Luis Obispo, FIU - Florida International University, UCF – University of Central Florida, SIU-Edwardsville - Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville, UIC - University of Illinois – Chicago, IPFW - Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, IPUI - Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, UMBC - University of Maryland Baltimore County, UMES -University of Maryland Eastern Shore, UMKC - University of Missouri-Kansas City, LIU - Long Island University, ETSU - Eastern Tennessee State University, TCU - Texas Christian University, UTSA – University of Texas at San Antonio, UTEP – University of Texas at El Paso, UTPA – University of Texas-Pan American, and VMI – Virginia Military Institute.

With so many teams, there are bound to be more than a few repeating mascots. In fact the 10 most common nicknames can be found on 81 (almost a quarter) of the teams in division 1. The top 10 names are, in order, Bulldogs, Tigers, Eagles, Wildcats, Bears, Panthers, Cougars, Huskies, Spartans, and Rams. The Bulldogs can be found at these schools: Alabama A&M, Bryant, Butler, The Citadel, Drake, Fresno State, Georgia, Gonzaga, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, UNC-Asheville, Samford, South Carolina State, and Yale.

Several teams are colorful, literally. Not satisfied with just a mascot, 44 schools have colors associated with their nicknames. Gold, yellow, red, black, blue, green, purple, crimson, orange, and grey all can be found in college basketball. The gold standard in colored nicknames is just that gold, with 12 teams monishing gold nicknames, they are: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions, California Golden Bears, FIU Golden Panthers, Oakland Golden Grizzlies, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Southern Miss Golden Eagles, Canisius Golden Griffins, Kent State Golden Flashes, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles, and Marquette Golden Eagles.

Team names and mascots aside, all of these teams have 1 thing in common that can’t be said about college football; that is every team has a shot at the national championship. Yes, some teams are horrific and probably shouldn’t belong in D1, but there is a mathematical way for these teams to reach the championship game, regardless of how much or little chance each team has. The only exceptions are those teams that are in the reclassification period, on NCAA probation, are independent, or belong to the Great West, which does not have an automatic NCAA berth for its champion. The NCAA Tournament is perhaps the biggest championship for any sport, professional or amateur in the country. Just getting an invite is said to have made a successful season for many. Only the elite, the top 10% of teams in the nation wouldn’t be satisfied with just an invite. Of the 346 teams, 294 can claim an invite at some point during their program, leaving 52 teams yet to receive the golden ticket.

Many of those 52 teams have only been around for a few years and can’t be too upset about not reaching the Big Dance. However, there are a few teams that have suffered greatly through many generations, failing to produce even 1 NCAA tournament team. The NCAA tournament has been around since 1939 and at present there are 5 teams that have been around since then and not made the tournament. Army, which spends more money fighting over seas wars, Northwestern, the only team from a “Power” conference, St. Francis of New York, not to be confused with the one in Pennsylvania, William & Mary, and The Citadel. Other schools that have yet to gain entrance to the Big Dance since I’ve been alive (initial D1 year): Denver (1948-80, 1999), Youngstown State (1948, 1982), Centenary (1960), New Hampshire (1962), Maine (1962), UT Pan-American (1969), Stetson (1972), MD-Eastern Shore (1974-76, 1982), Buffalo (1974-77, 1992), UC Irvine (1978), Bethune-Cookman (1981), and Western Illinois (1982). Centenary has one more shot this year as they will be moving to Division III next year (a wise decision).

There you have it, whether you live in Honolulu, Hawaii, or Orono, Maine, and everywhere in between, there’s sure to be a team close nearby to satisfy your college basketball needs. And if you live in Alaska, then you can just pick a name out of a hat or maybe follow one of the Wolves, Bears, or Huskies, that could be fitting.

That’s it for now, the Courtesy Wave wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving and remember to save some room for pie!

bsv

the courtesy wave