Despite having never won a championship in the NCAA Tournament era, which started in 1939, the Philadelphia-based program has produced three Hall of Famers, including legendary coaches John Chaney and Harry Litwack. In all that time, the Owls have racked up more than 1,900 wins and had the fifth-most victories in NCAA history coming into the 2020-21 season. Temple has been playing college basketball since 1895, making it one of the oldest programs in the sport. Jones helped make that powerful period a reality. The school’s 1955-56 team was the first to ever go undefeated through the regular season and tournament, and the program eventually won 60 consecutive games, including that run. From 1955-1979, USF made the Sweet 16 on 12 different occasions and won the national championship back to back in 19, making them one of only seven programs to ever win consecutive titles. It’s been a couple decades since the San Francisco Dons made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but there was a time when they were as dominant as any program in history. A combination of legendary coaches, players, academic excellence, culture and consistent winning make these programs the greatest in history.

We’ve gone back through the long history of college hoops and picked out the best college basketball programs that have proven to be best in the sport over the long haul. There are currently more than 350 schools across America that play Division I men’s basketball in the NCAA, which is nearly three times the number that play college football at the top level, meaning the competition to rule the sport is extremely fierce.

College basketball has been around since the 1890s, and in the roughly 130 years it has been played, some programs have singled themselves out.

Best history programs colleges