Selection Sunday for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament left the Wisconsin Badgers out of the big dance for the first time in a decade and a half. With Wisconsin seeing its 15-year run of having an appearance in a postseason bowl game and NCAA Tournament game in the same year snapped, there is a new king in town. The new longest active streak resides in Morgantown, West Virginia.
West Virginia’s postseason streak of success in both football and basketball is modest at just four years, but it is the longest one going today. The last time West Virginia missed the postseason in either sport was in 2013 when the football team failed to clinch bowl eligibility in their second season in the Big 12 and the basketball team didn’t do enough to impress the selection committee.
West Virginia is one of seven schools with an active streak of bowl and NCAA Tournament appearances in the same year for multiple years going right now. Miami and Michigan are next in line with three straight years of postseason appearances in both football and basketball. Florida State, Kansas State, Kentucky, and Virginia Tech have appeared in bowl games and the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years.
Wisconsin was not the only school to see their streak snapped this season. Baylor and North Carolina saw their four-year streaks busted, and USC and Middle Tennessee failed to make dual-postseason appearances for a third straight season.
There are a good handful of schools with bowl game and NCAA Tournament appearances this year in addition to those already mentioned. Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, Clemson, Duke, Houston, Marshall, Michigan State, Missouri, NC State, New Mexico State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Purdue, San Diego State, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UCLA, and No. 1 overall seed Virginia are all in the tournament after appearing in a postseason bowl game this past football season.
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