Counting NCAA tournament wins since 2000 is little more than a blinkered exercise in setting arbitrary and subjective quantitative goalposts. Much like a good portion of real life. Let’s do this.

NCAA tournament National wins since 2000 titles since 2000 1. Kansas 38 1 2. Michigan State 36 1 3. Duke 34 2 North Carolina 34 2 5. Florida 33 2 6. Connecticut 32 3 (4 since 1999!) Kentucky 32 1

After Connecticut and Kentucky there’s a big drop — equivalent to one national championship run — before you get down to plucky underdogs like Arizona, Louisville, Syracuse, and Wisconsin. No other program has won more than 25 games. (Full team list at the bottom of this post. Limber up your scrolling finger.)

On the other side of this coin a clear majority of the programs in Division I — 59 percent — has yet to win a single NCAA tournament game this century. That winless bunch includes the following legacy major-conference programs:

Nebraska

Northwestern

Oregon State

Providence

Rutgers

South Carolina

(“Legacy” meaning “major-conference” is a contested adjective in 2014. By some lights East Carolina is now a major-conference program. The Pirates haven’t won a tournament game in the past 15 years either.)

Not content with already sheltering the only major-conference team to have never even participated in the NCAA tournament, the Big Ten has made it a policy to go out and acquire other programs that haven’t won a tournament game this century. Go figure.

Meanwhile the ACC has pursued a decidedly un-Big-Ten strategy and chosen to acquire teams that do win NCAA tournament games. The results are clear to see:

Based on 2014-15 memberships NCAA tournament wins since 2000 1. ACC 176 2. Big Ten 151 3. SEC 121 4. Big 12 118 5. Pac-12 96 6. Big East 77 7. American 69 8. Atlantic 10 31 9. West Coast 25 10. Mountain West 18 11. Missouri Valley 17 Rest of Division I 137

In terms of recent March glory the American is UConn and everyone else. No other major or near-major conference has such a large share of its tournament wins (46 percent) concentrated in just one team.

There have been 143 winning teams in the NCAA tournament since 2000:

NCAA tournament wins since 2000 1. Kansas 38 2. Michigan State 36 3. Duke 34 North Carolina 34 5. Florida 33 6. Connecticut 32 Kentucky 32 8. Arizona 25 9. Louisville 24 Syracuse 24 Wisconsin 24 12. UCLA 23 13. Ohio State 19 Texas 19 15. Butler 17 Illinois 17 Maryland 17 18. Gonzaga 16 Memphis 16 Pitt 16 21. Xavier 15 22. Oklahoma 13 Marquette 13 Tennessee 13* Villanova 13 26. Indiana 12 Purdue 12 West Virginia 12 29. Oklahoma State 11 Stanford 11 31. Georgetown 10 Michigan 10 33. Cincinnati 9 Missouri 9 Oregon 9 36. Baylor 8 Iowa State 8 Washington 8 NC State 8* VCU 8* 41. Georgia Tech 7 LSU 7 Wichita State 7 44. Boston College 6 Kansas State 6 Notre Dame 6 Temple 6 Texas A&M 6 USC 6 Wake Forest 6 51. Alabama 5 George Mason 5 Miami 5 San Diego State 5 Southern Illinois 5 Tulsa 5 Vanderbilt 5 58. Cal 4 Creighton 4 Dayton 4 Kent State 4 Mississippi State 4 Nevada 4 Saint Joseph's 4 Utah 4 Brigham Young 4* Western Kentucky 4* 68. Auburn 3 Davidson 3 Florida State 3 Milwaukee 3 Ole Miss 3 Ohio 3 Saint Louis 3 Seton Hall 3 Siena 3 UAB 3 UNLV 3 Virginia 3 Washington State 3 La Salle 3* Saint Mary's 3* Siena 3* 84. Arizona State 2 Bradley 2 Bucknell 2 Cornell 2 Florida Gulf Coast 2 Harvard 2 Murray State 2 New Mexico 2 Northern Iowa 2 Pacific 2 Penn State 2 Richmond 2 Morehead State 2* Northwestern State 2* South Florida 2* Vermont 2* UNC Asheville 2** 101. Arkansas 1 Central Michigan 1 Charlotte 1 Cleveland State 1 Colorado 1 Colorado State 1 DePaul 1 Fresno State 1 George Washington 1 Georgia 1 Georgia State 1 Hampton 1 Indiana State 1 Iowa 1 Lehigh 1 Manhattan 1 Mercer 1 Minnesota 1 Montana 1 Norfolk State 1 North Dakota State 1 Old Dominion 1 Pepperdine 1 St. John's 1 San Diego 1 Stephen F. Austin 1 UNC Wilmington 1 Utah State 1 Virginia Tech 1 Winthrop 1 Wyoming 1 Albany 1* Arkansas Pine Bluff 1* Cal Poly 1* Clemson 1* Florida A&M 1* James Madison 1* Monmouth 1* Mount Saint Mary's 1* Niagara 1* North Carolina A&T 1* Oakland 1* UTSA 1* * Won one game prior to round of 64 ** Won two games prior to round of 64

The newest full-fledged no-asterisk members of this “We made it to the round of 32” club are Mercer, North Dakota State, and Stephen F. Austin. Salute.