Who’s in 2026 NCAA Tournament? Complete List of March Madness Teams & Odds
By Sascha Paruk in College Basketball
Published:
- The first March Madness berths have been clinched
- Northern Iowa is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade
- See a complete list of teams locked into the 2026 NCAA Tournament
The first NCAA Tournament berths were handed out this weekend, after the A-Sun, Big South, MVC, OVC, and Summit League Tournament title games. Due to Mercyhurst’s ineligibility, the NEC has also handed out its auto-bid already to the LIU Sharks, who will meet Mercyhurst in the NEC title game on Tuesday.
The table below lists all the teams that have punched their ticket to the 2026 edition of March Madness, along with the sportsbook currently offering the best March Madness odds on those teams, and each team’s KenPom rating.
NCAA Tournament Teams (2026)
Caesars Sportsbook is the first to offer prices on the early mid-major and low-major champions. Other sportsbooks will follow suit.
Odds and KenPom ratings last updated at 5:53 pm ET, March 8th. Claim the top sportsbook promos ahead of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
ASUN Conference Champion: Queens Royals
In just their fourth season as a DI team, the Grant Leonard’s Queens Royals won their first ASUN title and, in the process, clinched their first March Madness berth.
The Royals earned the berth the hard way, taking out the top-two seeds in the semifinal (#2 Austin Peay, 90-83) and final (#1 Central Arkansas, 98-93 OT).
Missouri Valley Conference Champion: Northern Iowa Panthers
The Northern Iowa Panthers did something no MVC team had done before: win four games in four days to claim the MVC Tournament title. The Panthers were just the No. 6 seed in Arch Madness, despite having the second-best KenPom rating in the league (82nd entering the tourney and 70th after claiming the MVC crown).
Ali Farokhmanesh immortalized the Panthers in March Madness lore with his buzzer-beater in the 2010 tournament, which propelled #9 UNI a 69-67 upset of #1 Kansas and into the Sweet 16.
Big South Conference Champion: High Point Panthers
The High Point Panthers became the second 30-win team in the nation after bouncing Winthrop in the Big South Tournament title game (91-76). They are now tied for the nation’s second-longest active win streak at 14 games, alongside Navy. (Undefeated Miami Ohio will head into the MAC Tournament on a 31-game win streak.)
High Point has only been a DI team since 1999 and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance just last season, earning a #15 seed and falling to #2 Purdue in the first round (75-63).
Despite massive roster turnover and a coaching change, High Point repeated as Big South champs in Flynn Clayman’s first season as a DI head coach.
Managing Editor
Sascha has been working in the sports-betting industry since 2014, and quickly paired his strong writing skills with a burgeoning knowledge of probability and statistics. He holds an undergraduate degree in linguistics and a Juris Doctor from the University of British Columbia.
