Ranking College Basketball's National Champions Since 1985

Call it luck, call it redemption; any way you label it, Kansas is back on the basketball mountaintop — and the Jayhawks did not need to wait multiple decades like its previous two national championships. 

A veteran team showed off its experience en route to the program’s fourth-ever title, winning a championship game against fellow blue-blood program North Carolina that college basketball fans will remember for ages.

Jayhawks head coach Bill Self was asked to rank the leader of this Kansas team, 2022 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player Ochai Agbaji, in the pantheon of the program. Given its history with such names as Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Pierce, and this year’s NBA Most Valuable Player front-runner Joel Embiid, what Self said was quite the endorsement.

"He's the most accomplished player that we have had at our university since Danny [Manning]," Self said. "To think that four years, win the national championship, win the league, win the Big 12 Tournament, win the NCAA Tournament, to be most outstanding player … we may have had some guys that had comparable years, but never had anybody cap it off like what he has other than D [Manning]."

But how about where Agbaji and the 2021-22 Jayhawks rank among other college programs to hoist the hardware since the Tournament expanded in 1985?

1. 1992 Duke

Record: 34-2, 14-2 ACC

Championship Game: Beat Michigan, 71-51

Head Coach: Mike Krzyzewski

Repeat championships since the expansion of the Tournament to 48 teams, say nothing of 64, 65 or 68, are rare. So rare, in fact, that nearly two decades elapsed before another program accomplished it.

With one of the sport's all-time great heels leading the way, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley at point guard, and the rising star of Grant Hill, the 1992 Blue Devils navigated a full season with a target on their backs and came out on top.

2. 1996 Kentucky

Record: 34-2, 16-0 SEC

Championship Game: Beat Syracuse, 76-67

Head Coach: Rick Pitino

A roster with a variety of NBA talent steamrolled its way through the regular season, winning by an average of 22 points per game. Tony Delk had an outstanding tournament, while Antoine Walker's March performance catapulted him into the pros.

Rick Pitino's squad went so deep, longtime NBA veteran Nazr Mohammed was a role player on the '95-96 Wildcats.

3. 2021 Baylor

Record: 28-2, 13-1 Big 12

Championship Game: Beat Gonzaga, 86-70

Head Coach: Scott Drew

Punctuating a national championship with a thoroughly dominant performance against a previously undefeated No. 1 isn't the kind of final statement most title winners get to make. The rout of Gonzaga was the perfect reflection of the Bears' March run overall, in which every game was won by at least nine points but all played out less competitively than the final scores indicate.

Were it not for a COVID-19 shutdown during conference play, it's not unrealistic to consider the 2021 Bears could have run the table in their own right. With the versatility of MaCio Teague and Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell demonstrating offensive and defensive games reminiscent of Gary Payton, Mark Vital's workmanlike play, and the spark (not to mention glorious mullet) of Matthew Mayer, Baylor proved itself one of the all-time balanced teams in NCAA Tournament history.

4. 2001 Duke

Record: 35-4, 13-3 ACC

Championship Game: Beat Arizona, 82-72

Head Coach: Mike Krzyzewski

Of Coach K's national championship-winning teams at Duke, the '92 squad was the best, but the '01 Blue Devils were the most collectively talented. Carlos Boozer, Shane Battier and Mike Dunleavy Jr. all enjoyed long NBA careers after leading Duke to the title, and Jay Williams finished his college career as one of the best point guards in modern times. Beating outstanding Maryland and Arizona teams in the Final Four solidified the strength of Krzyzewski's third championship team.

5. 1990 UNLV

Record: 35-5, 16-2 Big West

Championship Game: Beat Duke, 103-73

Head Coach: Jerry Tarkanian

The unforgettable starting five of Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Butler, Anderson Hunt and Greg Anthony powered UNLV through one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament runs of all time. While the 1990-91 team came a historic upset away from playing for a repeat, which would have cemented the 1991 Runnin' Rebels as the greatest team of the modern era, the 1989-90 squad was still among the best of the era.

6. 2012 Kentucky

Record: 38-2, 16-0 SEC

Championship Game: Beat Kansas, 67-59

Head Coach: John Calipari

The national title that long eluded John Calipari finally came in 2012. Fitting enough given his hallmark recruiting style at Kentucky, the linchpin of the Wildcats' first national championship in 14 years was Anthony Davis. AD completed one of the greatest one-and-done seasons ever with 16 rebounds, six blocked shots and five assists in the National Championship Game, while Doron Lamb dropped in 22 points.

7. 1999 UConn

Record: 34-2, 16-2 Big East

Championship Game: Beat Duke, 77-74

Head Coach: Jim Calhoun

Richard Hamilton delivered one of the most remarkable NCAA Tournament performances ever while leading UConn and legendary coach Jim Calhoun both to their first titles. Khalid El-Amin became a fan favorite for the Huskies in 1998-99, and the backcourt duo led the way in the defeat of a stacked Duke team in the National Championship Game.

8. 1995 UCLA

Record: 31-2, 16-2 Pac-10

Championship Game: Beat Arkansas, 89-78

Head Coach: Jim Harrick

Ed O'Bannon etched his name into the annals of UCLA basketball history alongside such noteworthy Bruins as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sidney Wicks and Bill Walton with a 1994-95 season for the ages. His versatility set the foundation for an outstanding UCLA team that featured Tyus Edney at point guard (whose coast-to-coast layup in the Round of 32 kept the Bruins' title hopes alive) and George Zidek in the middle.