A national championship at the highest level of men's college basketball, currently NCAA Division I, is a designation awarded annually to the best college basketball team in the United States. The national championship is currently won by the champion of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, a single-elimination tournament played to determine the men's Division I basketball champion. The NCAA tournament was first played in 1939, 40 to 50 years after the first college basketball games in the 1890s following the game's invention by James Naismith.
Prior to the establishment and sustained success of the annual NCAA tournament, the national collegiate basketball title was considered a "mythical national championship". Much like national championships in college football, national championships in college basketball were claimed by schools, named by sportswriters, awarded by various organizations, and won on the court in occasional intersectional post-season games between conference or regional champions.
The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was established in 1938, one year before the NCAA tournament. During the early years of the two tournaments the NIT and NCAA competed against each other, giving rise to debate over their relative prowess. During the next two decades the relative status of the two tournaments was unclear, and thus some years produced disputed national championship claims between the tournament winners. In 1950, the City College of New York became the first and only team to complete the "grand slam" of college basketball by winning the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year. The NIT and NCAA champions played each other four times in post-tournament competition to settle the title; in all four cases the NCAA champion was victorious.
Through shrewd competitive actions the NCAA positioned its tournament to match and then surpass the NIT. Fallout from the 1951 point-shaving scandal severely damaged the reputation of the NIT and basketball in New York City; the NCAA seized the initiative by abandoning scandal-plagued Madison Square Garden and expanding its tournament field to include more conference champions. The UCLA dynasty under head coach John Wooden, who won 10 national championships in the NCAA tournament between 1964 and 1975, further cemented the NCAA's dominance as did the tournament's expansion to 32 and then 64 teams. The "March Madness" phenomenon grew with prime-time network coverage of championship games and ESPN's coverage of the early rounds, leaving the NCAA contest as the clear top post-season tournament and sole determiner of the national championship.
Pre-tournament era (1892–1938)
The concept of a national championship in college basketball dates back to the earliest years of the sport in the 1890s. James Naismith's original announcement of the new game of "Basket Ball" and the sport's original 13 rules were published in the January 1892 issue of The Triangle, a magazine published by the students of the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. An article in this same publication, then titled Physical Education, in April 1893 called for the formation of three basketball leagues made up of YMCAs, colleges, and amateur athletic clubs to each compete for a "Trophy or Championship Emblem". The national champions of the three leagues would then compete in a "triangular contest for the Supreme Championship". The 1898 Spalding's Guide noted that this early suggestion for leagues and national championships was premature, "for it wasn't until 1895 that the athletic clubs gave the game its due recognition, and even up to the present time comparatively few colleges are interested in the game."
Yale claimed the "basket ball championship of the United States" as early as 1899. In 1902, Minnesota claimed the national college championship citing their 15–0 unblemished record and win over eastern champion Yale. Going further, they asserted that their win over the champion Company E team of Fond du Lac entitled them to the full amateur basketball championship of the United States. In 1903 and 1904 Minnesota sought to play eastern champions Yale and Columbia in post-season games to decide the national title, but in both cases were refused. Columbia claimed the 1905 title with two wins over traveling Western Conference quints.
Hiram College won the Olympic college basketball championship at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis. Hiram competed in a round-robin competition with two other American schools, Wheton College and Latter-day Saints' University, winning both of their games. The victors were awarded Olympic gold medals along with a banner proclaiming the "Olympic World's College Basket Ball Championship". The 1904 Spalding's Guide presciently described the tournament:
Four years later, in 1908, Western Conference champion Chicago played Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League champion Pennsylvania in an ad hoc best-of-three post-season playoff. Chicago won the series in two games, and with it the national intercollegiate championship. The following season Chicago went 12–0 and again won the Western Conference championship but was unable to schedule games with eastern champion Columbia to decide the national title.
The first collegiate team to win the Amateur Athletic Union basketball tournament was Utah in 1916. They were followed by NYU in 1920, Butler in 1924, and Washburn in 1925.
In 1920, Chicago again met Pennsylvania in a playoff between Western Conference and Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League champions. The series went to three games, with the championship played on March 27 at a neutral site at the Princeton Gymnasium. Penn was victorious and won the national title.
Wabash College won the inaugural national intercollegiate basketball tournament in 1922. The tournament was not played again.
The Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia awarded national basketball championship trophies for 1928 and 1929, mirroring the Bonniwell Trophy that the organization awarded three times to the Notre Dame football team. The organization deemed Pittsburgh the champion of the 1927–28 season and awarded the Panthers the U. S. Senator Boies Penrose Memorial Trophy. The following year it named Butler the champion of the 1928–29 season and awarded the Bulldogs the John J. McDevitt Trophy.
In 1935, the American Legion sponsored an intersectional "Rose Bowl", promoted as a basketball game "for the national collegiate title," on April 13 at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. LSU defeated Pittsburgh 41–37 and claim the national collegiate basketball championship based on this victory.
The Helms Athletic Foundation published, in 1943 and 1957, retrospective lists of 'National Collegiate Champions' for the early years of the sport. The Helms selections were made by the organization's co-founder and managing director Bill Schroeder, based upon historic research and consultation with coaches, sportswriters, and other basketball authorities. The pre-tournament Helms selections were adopted by the NCAA and are included in the official Division I Men's Basketball Records book as the "Final Regular-Season Poll" leaders for the years prior to the start of the AP poll for college basketball in 1948–49.
In 1995 the Premo Power Poll, a mathematical system used to rank college basketball teams, was published in the Encyclopedia of College Basketball. The rankings were slightly modified and published as the Premo-Porretta Power Poll in the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia in 2009. These rankings stretch back to the very earliest days of the sport, long before nation-wide polling, and rank the teams based on strength of schedule.
+ Pre-tournament national championships and No. 1 rankings (1892–1938) Season Champion(s) Record Coach Tournament Claims and selections Retroactive selections 1893 Iowa 2–0–1 Premo 1894 Hiram 1–0 1895 Temple 8–3 1896 Temple 15–7 Yale 8–5 Henry Anderson Premo-Porretta 1897 Yale 11–5 1898 Mount Union 8–1 — 1899 Yale 8–1 — Claim 1900 Yale 9–6 — 1901 Bucknell 12–1 — Dartmouth 16–2 Walter McCornack Helms 1902 Minnesota 15–0 L. J. Cooke Claim
Helms, Premo-Porretta 1903 Minnesota 13–0 Claim Premo-Porretta Yale 15–1 Yale Murphy Helms 1904 Columbia 17–1 — Helms, Premo-Porretta Hiram 9–3 — Olympic gold medal 1905 Columbia 19–1 — Claim Helms, Premo-Porretta Williams 20–2 Claim 1906 Dartmouth 16–2 Walter McCornack Helms Wabash 17–1 Ralph Jones Premo-Porretta 1907 Chicago 22–2 Joseph Raycroft Helms, Premo Williams 15–1 — Claim Premo-Porretta 1908 Chicago 21–2 Joseph Raycroft Postseason championship Helms Wabash 24–0 Ralph Jones Premo-Porretta 1909 Chicago 12–0 Joseph Raycroft Helms, Premo-Porretta 1910 Columbia 11–1 Harry A. Fisher Helms Williams 11–0 — Premo-Porretta 1911 St. John's 14–0 Claude Allen Claim Helms, Premo-Porretta 1912 Wisconsin 15–0 Walter Meanwell 1913 Navy 9–0 Frank Gorton 1914 Wisconsin 15–0 Walter Meanwell 1915 Illinois 16–0 Ralph Jones 1916 Wisconsin 20–1 Walter Meanwell Utah 10–0 Nelson Norgren AAU tournament — 1917 Washington State 25–1 Fred Bohler Helms, Premo-Porretta 1918 Syracuse 16–1 Lew Andreas 1919 Minnesota 13–0 L. J. Cooke Helms Navy 16–0 Bob Folwell Premo-Porretta 1920 NYU 16–1 Ed Thorp AAU tournament — Penn 22–1 Edward McNichol Postseason championship 1921 Missouri 17–1 J. Craig Ruby Premo-Porretta Penn 21–2 Edward McNichol Helms 1922 Kansas 16–2 Phog Allen Missouri 16–1 J. Craig Ruby Premo-Porretta Wabash 22–3 Pete Vaughan Postseason tournament 1923 Army 17–0 Harry Fisher Premo-Porretta Kansas 17–1 Phog Allen Helms 1924 Butler — Harlan Page AAU tournament North Carolina 26–0 Norman Shepard Helms, Premo-Porretta 1925 Princeton 21–2 Albert Wittmer Washburn Dutch Lonborg AAU tournament — 1926 Syracuse 19–1 Lew Andreas Helms, Premo-Porretta 1927 California 17–0 Nibs Price Premo-Porretta Notre Dame 19–1 George Keogan Helms, Premo 1928 Pittsburgh 21–0 Doc Carlson Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia Helms, Premo-Porretta 1929 Butler 17-2 Tony Hinkle Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia Montana State 35–2 Schubert R. Dyche Helms, Premo-Porretta 1930 Alabama 20–0 Hank Crisp Premo-Porretta Pittsburgh 23–2 Doc Carlson Helms 1931 Northwestern 16–1 Dutch Lonborg Helms, Premo-Porretta 1932 Purdue 17–1 Ward Lambert 1933 Kentucky 21–3 Adolph Rupp Helms Texas 13–6 Ed Olle Premo-Porretta 1934 Kentucky 16–1 Adolph Rupp South Carolina 18–1 Rock Norman Premo Wyoming 26–4 Willard Witte Helms 1935 LSU 14–1 Harry Rabenhorst American Legion "Rose Bowl" NYU 18–1 Howard Cann Helms, Premo-Porretta Richmond 20–0 Malcolm Pitt Premo 1936 Long Island 23–0 Clair Bee Premo-Porretta Notre Dame 22–2–1 George Keogan Helms 1937 Stanford 25–2 John Bunn Helms, Premo-Porretta 1938 Temple 23–2 James Usilton National Invitation Stephen Girard Lions Club
Teams and selectors listed in italics indicate retroactively applied championships.
Early NIT and NCAA tournament era (1938–1950s)
The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was established in 1938, hosted at Madison Square Garden by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association. The post-season Invitation was an extension of the New York City games assembled by basketball promoter Ned Irish, who since 1934 had been organizing regular-season double-headers at the Garden matching the nation's top teams. Playing at the "Mecca of college basketball" in front of the national sports press granted the invited teams a high level of exposure, prize money, and prestige. The Temple Owls won the first NIT title and were hailed as national champions.