NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Teams by State and Conference

How many Division I men's basketball teams are there in 2026-27?

The number means 365 schools are listed under the Division I men's basketball filter. It does not mean all 365 enter March Madness. The NCAA championship field expands to 76 teams in 2027, so most Division I programs still finish their seasons outside the national bracket. It also does not count Division II or Division III teams merely because they use “NCAA” in their branding.

Geographically, those programs cover 49 states and the District of Columbia. Alaska is the only state without an institution in the current Division I men's basketball list. The distribution is highly uneven: California has 26 programs and Texas has 25, while several states have only one. That is why a state-by-state directory reveals more than a single national number.

You may see 364, 365 or 366 on older pages and databases. Those differences can reflect a different season snapshot, an institution moving between divisions, or a former program that remains in a local schedule database after its status changes. For this guide, the controlling source is the live NCAA membership directory rather than a third-party historical list. The complete table below preserves the school, state and men's basketball conference returned by that source.

Reclassification deserves a separate warning. A school can compete on a Division I schedule while moving through the NCAA's membership process, and its championship eligibility can differ from that of a full active member. This page counts the institutions included by the NCAA's Division I men's basketball filter; it does not make an independent eligibility ruling for each postseason.

Because realignment and sponsorship decisions continue, treat 365 as a dated 2026-27 answer. Check the NCAA directory again if you are using the list for compliance, media credentials or a future season. Fans who want the games attached to these programs can use the men's college basketball schedule.

The 32 Division I men's basketball conferences

The NCAA directory assigns the 365 programs to 32 men's basketball conferences. The largest current groups are the ACC and Big Ten with 18 apiece. At the other end, the America East, Atlantic Sun, Ivy League, MEAC and Summit League each have eight. These are basketball affiliations, which matter more for this directory than a school's football league.

The total changed in a visible way for 2026-27 because the reconstituted Pac-12 began competition with nine basketball schools: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State and Washington State. That move redistributed members from several leagues rather than adding nine new Division I programs.

Conference size affects the schedule format but does not reveal the number of league games by itself. An 18-team league may use protected opponents and rotating matchups; a smaller league may play a full double round robin. The team count also does not guarantee the same championship access for every member, particularly during reclassification.

Finally, “32 basketball conferences” is not the same as the total number of NCAA Division I conference organizations. The NCAA separately tracks primary and single-sport conferences across many sports. This table asks the narrower fan question: which league label is attached to each Division I men's basketball program in the current sport directory?

Where Division I men's basketball teams are concentrated

Division I men's basketball is national, but the programs are not evenly distributed. Four states contain more than one quarter of the entire directory: California has 26, Texas 25, New York 22 and North Carolina 19. Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia each have 14, while Illinois and Ohio have 13 apiece.

The opposite end is just as useful. Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming each have one current program. Alaska has none. The District of Columbia, treated as its own jurisdiction in the table, has four. A map that colors every state equally can hide that range, so the master list includes a count beside each state heading.

Concentration does not equal competitive strength. A state with many institutions spans different conferences, budgets and recent results. Nor does a large state total guarantee more NCAA tournament bids: automatic qualifiers are earned through conferences, and at-large selections depend on team résumés. The count simply answers where programs are based.

Geography still matters to the basketball calendar. Nearby schools can schedule regional nonconference games, while national conferences create long trips that a state-only list cannot show. The NCAA also considers travel and proximity when placing tournament teams, but those bracket rules operate after selection and should not be confused with ordinary conference alignment.

Use the state totals as a navigation aid, not as a ranking. The alphabetical tables that follow name every institution and its current men's basketball league, allowing a reader to move from broad density to the precise school-level answer.

Division I men's basketball teams by state: Alabama through Missouri

This first half of the directory runs from Alabama through Missouri. Each count and affiliation comes from the NCAA's academic-year 2027 men's basketball membership response. Schools are alphabetized by official name within the state, so familiar brands such as UConn or Ole Miss appear under their formal institutional names.

Use the conference column as a 2026-27 basketball answer. It may differ from an older media guide, and it should not be replaced with a football affiliation. Formal names also help distinguish systems with multiple campuses, such as California State and University of California institutions.

Alabama (10)

Arkansas (5)

Arizona (4)

California (26)

Colorado (5)

Connecticut (7)

District of Columbia (4)

Delaware (2)

Florida (14)

Georgia (7)

Hawaii (1)

Iowa (4)

Idaho (3)

Illinois (13)

Indiana (11)

Kansas (3)

Kentucky (8)

Louisiana (12)

Massachusetts (9)

Maryland (9)

Maine (1)

Michigan (7)

Minnesota (2)

Missouri (6)

Together, these entries form the first portion of the national total. The split at Missouri is only for readability; it has no NCAA regional or competitive meaning.

Division I men's basketball teams by state: Mississippi through Wyoming

The second half begins with Mississippi and ends with Wyoming. It contains 192 programs; combined with the 173 entries above, it reconciles exactly to the 365-school national count. The same rules apply: official institution names, state locations and 2026-27 men's basketball conferences come directly from the NCAA directory.

Large states such as New York and Texas create long lookup blocks, while Vermont and Wyoming have one program each. The row structure stays identical so a reader can search a school name in the page and see its state and league without translating a nickname.

Mississippi (6)

Montana (2)

North Carolina (19)

North Dakota (2)

Nebraska (3)

New Hampshire (2)

New Jersey (8)

New Mexico (2)

Nevada (2)

New York (22)

Ohio (13)

Oklahoma (4)

Oregon (4)

Pennsylvania (14)

Rhode Island (4)

South Carolina (12)

South Dakota (2)

Tennessee (12)

Texas (25)

Utah (7)

Virginia (14)

Vermont (1)

Washington (5)

Wisconsin (4)

West Virginia (2)

Wyoming (1)

That final Wyoming row closes the full national list. The tables are a membership snapshot, not a ranking or a promise of NCAA tournament eligibility, and should be refreshed when the directory advances to a later academic year.

How to use and verify this team directory

Use this page as a 2026-27 starting point, then match the source to the question. The current NCAA directory is best for confirming whether a school appears in Division I men's basketball now and which conference the sport lists. The historical membership dashboard is better when you need to know where the program competed in an earlier season.

1. 1. Confirm the academic year. The rows here say academic year 2027, meaning 2026-27. Do not apply them backward to a 2025-26 result.
2. 2. Keep the sport filter. Select men's basketball and Division I. A school's football, hockey or primary-conference field can be different.
3. 3. Open the institution detail. The school page shows the sport, division and conference together and can reveal active or reclassification context.
4. 4. Use history for old seasons. Search the NCAA historical dashboard by year, school, conference or state instead of assuming today's alignment.
5. 5. Check a separate schedule source. Membership tells you who the programs are; it does not list every game or guarantee that a future date is final.

That final distinction prevents several common mistakes. A team can be a directory member without appearing in the national tournament. A conference label does not indicate a ranking. A state count does not tell you how many home games are available today. Championship eligibility, bracket selection and live schedules each require their own source.

For an individual fact, record the date you checked it and keep the NCAA organization URL. For a bulk list, preserve the directory filter and academic year just as this article does. NCAA sponsorship data is reported annually, while realignment announcements can precede the season in which a move takes effect.

If your real question is who plays next rather than who belongs to Division I, move to the college basketball schedule today. This directory supplies the identity layer; the schedule supplies dates, opponents and game status.