March Madness

Which Conference Has the Most Teams in the Sweet 16?

Here’s a look at the conferences that have the most teams in the Sweet 16 of the Men’s and Women’s 2022 NCAA Basketball Tournaments

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March Madness is all about bragging rights. 

Whether for the fans at home who strategically -- or not so strategically -- build their brackets or the conferences looking to establish themselves as the heavyweights of college basketball, there’s a lot on the line come tournament time. 

The era of conference realignment has only highlighted the role of conferences, as teams bolster their non-conference resumes with age-old rivalries only to beat up on each other once conference games roll around. So which conference really is King of the Dance and do many tournament bids always result in success?

Here’s a brief history of how conferences have fared heading into the Sweet 16:

Which conference has the most teams in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 Men’s NCAA Tournament?

The Big 12 and the ACC lead the Sweet 16 pack with three teams apiece. The Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big East are each represented by two teams, while Arkansas is the SEC’s lone Sweet 16 representative. Rounding out the field of 16 is the American Athletic Conference, the West Coast Conference and the Metro Atlantic with one team each. 

The ACC’s three-team showing is particularly impressive considering they only had five teams in the conference, the fewest of any of the Power Five conferences. Virginia Tech, the conference tournament champion, lost to Texas in the first round and Notre Dame came from the First Four before narrowly losing to Texas Tech in the second round.

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Meanwhile, the Big Ten seemingly underperformed. Despite having nine teams in the tournament -- the most of any conference this year and tied for the second-most all time -- only Purdue and Michigan survived through the first weekend of play.

The full conference breakdown of the Sweet 16 is below:

Big 12 (3): No. 1 Kansas, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 11 Iowa State

ACC (3): No. 2 Duke, No. 8 North Carolina and No. 10 Miami

Big Ten (2): No. 3 Purdue and No. 11 Michigan

Pac-12 (2): No. 1 Arizona and No. 4 UCLA

Big East (2): No. 2 Villanova and No. 4 Providence

American Athletic (1): No. 5 Houston

West Coast Conference (1): No. 1 Gonzaga

SEC (1): No. 4 Arkansas

Metro Atlantic (1): No. 15 St. Peter’s

Which conference has the most teams in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 Women’s NCAA Tournament?

The ACC once again established itself as the King of the Dance, making up a quarter of the Sweet 16 in the women’s bracket. Another quarter comes from the Big Ten with four teams as well. The ACC is bound to lose at least one team in the Sweet 16 as No. 1 NC State and No. 5 Notre Dame face off in an intra-conference matchup.

The Big 12, SEC and Big East each scored two tickets into the Sweet 16. The Pac-12 is banking it all on defending national champion and No. 1 seed Stanford. The last belongs to the Summit League’s South Dakota, the only team not from a Power Five Conference.

The full conference breakdown of the Sweet 16 is below:

ACC (4): No. 1 Louisville, No. 1 NC State, No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 5 North Carolina

Big Ten (4): No. 3 Michigan, No. 3 Indiana, No. 4 Maryland and No. 6 Ohio State

Big 12 (2): No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Iowa State

SEC (2): No. 1 South Carolina and No. 4 Tennessee

Big East (2): No. 2 UConn and No. 10 Creighton

Pac-12 (1): No. 1 Stanford

Summit League (1): No. 10 South Dakota

What is the record for most teams from the same conference in the Sweet 16?

From 2004 to 2014, seven teams traded their Big East membership in favor of the ACC, which already featured blue bloods such as Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. Thus, the next super conference of college basketball was formed. 

Within no time, the conference was capitalizing on its talent pool and making deep runs into March Madness.

On the men's side in 2016, the ACC got a record six teams into the Sweet 16. They also got five teams into the Sweet 16 in both 2015 and 2019. The only other conference to get five teams past the second round? The Big East in 2009, featuring three teams that eventually joined the ACC. 

What is the record for most teams from the same conference in the NCAA Tournament?

Seasoned fans of the tournament know that the Big East used to dominate college basketball. Never was that more true than in 2011 when the conference received a record 11 bids to the Men's NCAA Tournament. 

The Big East’s performance in the Big Dance got mixed reviews. Only two teams advanced past the second round. A testament to the strength of the conference, the two teams that made it to the Sweet Sixteen -- No. 11 Marquette and No. 3 UConn, the eventual national champions -- finished 9-9 in the conference and were in the bottom half of the Big East regular season standings. 

2011 was the only time in tournament history that any conference has received double-digit representatives. However, five other times have seen nine bids awarded to the same conference -- 2012 Big East, 2017 ACC, 2018 ACC, 2021 Big Ten and 2022 Big Ten. 

Despite securing nine bids, the Big Ten didn't earn a top-2 seed in any of the four regions. Now, their hopes for tournament glory rely on Purdue and Michigan.

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