NCAA Tournament: Ranking the unlikeliest Final Four runs since 2000

There are currently 363 Division 1 college basketball programs and virtually all of them have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament any year. Obviously, it’s much harder at some schools compared to others. Those power conference programs get far more shots to prove themselves worthy of Tournament contention than schools in mid-major leagues. There always seem to be a few potent mid-major programs snubbed from the Tournament field, but there’s also a few that take full advantage of their opportunity.

This season has proven that again by handing us a mind-boggling Final Four. We could talk about Connecticut’s dominance or the upsets that Miami has pulled, but just consider what’s on the other side of the bracket. A pair of mid-major teams will face off for the right to play in the national championship game, with 5-seed San Diego State and 9-seed Florida Atlantic pulling off four straight wins to get to this point.

These runs that the Aztecs and Owls have pulled off are certainly historic but they are by no means the first of their kind. The recent years have actually provided us with a slew of unexpected Tournament runs, including mid-major or less-talented power conference programs making deep runs to the Final Four. Both Florida Atlantic and San Diego State deserve to be in this position and have proven that these last two weeks, but how do they compare to some of these other historic runs?

Today, we’ll be comparing these two recent runs to some other unlikely Final Four runs, ranking the top ten of the past twenty seasons. These runs have turned these programs, players, and coaches into household names, even if the notoriety only lasted for a few weeks or months. These rankings are somewhat subjective, but are based on the program’s strength at the time and the difficulty of their path to the Final Four. Let’s get right into the rankings.