After the Super Bowl, college basketball will begin to take center stage. Most notably, the upcoming NCAA Tournament will consume sports fans for three weeks as the usual upsets and bracket-busting make way for a new champion to be crowned. But who could that be?
Of course, you have the strong teams sitting on top of the rankings as the favorites to cut down the nets in Phoenix on the first Monday in April, but there are plenty of teams that could make a surprising run to a title. At this time last season, the UConn Huskies were ranked 24th in the AP poll after their 7th loss in their last 11 games … yet they would catch fire in the NCAA tournament to win their fifth national championship.
The team they met in Houston for the title, San Diego State, was ranked 22nd a year ago. Final Four participants Florida Atlantic and Miami ranked 19th and 23rd, respectively. Just because a team isn’t sitting pretty right now doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of creating their own March Madness and playing for a championship.
So, who has the capability of making a six-game run this March and April? Here are 20 teams that can win the NCAA tournament.