FanSided claims Kansas second best program in college basketball

It’s hard to really judge which basketball program is the best of all-time. Is postseason success (which can be a flash in the pan) more important? Or is it regular season dominance? With the latter, how can we judge some teams when they’re not all in the same conference?

ESPN and other outlets have come up with point systems in the last few years and have ranked teams based on their own criteria.

FanSided joined that group this week with their own point system and ranked the top 75 best college basketball programs of all-time.

Here’s their criteria:

• NCAA Championship: 10 points
• Conference Championship: 8 points
• Championship Game Runner-Up: 6 points
• Pre-NCAA Tournament Champion (championship seasons from before 1939) : 6 points
• Final Four: 5 points
• Elite Eight: 4 points
• Sweet Sixteen: 3 points
• NCAA Tournament Appearance: 2 points

Kansas came up with a whopping 858 points, good enough for second place. Kentucky came in first with 938 points and UCLA followed Kansas with 782 points.

FanSided had this to say about KU’s ranking:

“The Jayhawks come in impressively high on this list and their 57 conference championships are by far the most in college basketball history for a single program. Of course 43 trips to the NCAA Tournament and 14 Final Four appearances don’t hurt either. Not to mention their three National Championships, six times being the Runner-Up, and their two awarded championships from before the NCAA Tournament era, All around, a great resume for a great program.”

Here’s their top ten:

1. Kentucky
2. Kansas
3. UCLA
4. North Carolina
5. Duke
6. Louisville
7. UConn
8. Indiana
9. Cincinnati
10. Arizona

No big surprises here except maybe for Cincinnati. The top five are considered the “blue bloods” of college basketball. Louisville and UConn are certainly in that next tier. Indiana is so low because they haven’t been as good recently compared to their past.

Other teams of note ranked in the top 75:

14. Texas

16. Oklahoma State

18. Kansas State

27. Oklahoma

38. Missouri

39. West Virginia

61. Texas Tech

71. Wichita State

One of the biggest surprises for me is how low Syracuse is ranked (No. 21). They suffer from playing in a historically tough conference (Big East and now ACC). Their small postseason success doesn’t help out either. Syracuse has the fifth most all-time wins in college basketball (and fifth best win percentage).