BYU basketball punches ticket with at-large bid to 2026 NCAA Tournament
Mar 15, 2026, 4:17 PM | Updated: Mar 16, 2026, 10:57 am
PROVO, Utah – For the third year in a row, BYU basketball is dancing in the NCAA Tournament.
BYU officially received its at-large bid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament on Sunday during the Selection Sunday telecast on CBS.
The Cougars, who finished 23-11 during the 2025-26 season, received a 6-seed and will face 11-seed NC State or Texas in Portland, Oregon.
BYU basketball will face either Texas or NC State in the NCAA Tournament
Texas and NC State will play on Tuesday night in the First Four in Dayton.
It’s the first time BYU has gone to the NCAA Tournament three consecutive years since a six-year run from 2007 to 2012.
The at-large bid marks BYU’s 33rd all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, BYU basketball reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the furthest the program had reached in March Madness since 2011.
BYU enters the 2026 NCAA Tournament with one of the nation’s top players in star freshman AJ Dybantsa.
Dybantsa is the nation’s leading scorer at 25.3 points per game.
The potential No. 1 NBA draft pick put together a string of impressive performances last week in the Big 12 Tournament, setting a Big 12 Tournament record with 93 points in three games.
BYU faced a challenging schedule in 2026. The NET’s strength-of-schedule metrics ranked BYU 11th-toughest in the country.
Breaking down BYU’s path to an at-large bid
BYU won 15 games against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents, finishing with a 15-11 record between the two quadrants. Only one of BYU’s losses this season was against a Quad 2 opponent (UCF at home).
BYU earned two victories over Quad 1A opponents: a November 21 win over Wisconsin at the Delta Center and a February 21 win over Iowa State in Provo.
They also notched quality wins over Texas Tech, Miami (FL), Clemson, and Villanova.
BYU has gone through what second-year head coach Kevin Young calls “three iterations.”
Before the season started, BYU lost key reserve guard Nate Pickens for the season, and then a few weeks later, on Thanksgiving, Dawson Baker suffered a season-ending injury.
Then, on February 14, BYU lost Second Team All-Big 12 performer Richie Saunders for the season due to an ACL injury. BYU has taken on different looks, but enter the NCAA Tournament with a little bit of momentum after a strong showing in Kansas City at the Big 12 Tournament.
“I think we’re extremely ready,” Young said when asked about his team’s readiness for the NCAA Tournament. “This has been a season of, like, three different stories. I talked about that. And AJ mentioned it, I mentioned it to the guys in the locker room, you know, I think it’s a blessing that we were able to come here and play in the first round to get three games (at the Big 12 Tournament). It was important because we were still searching for this group’s identity relative to all the injuries that we’ve had, and I’m really proud of where our team is at right now.”
BYU boasts a high-powered offense that ranks in the top 25 nationally, averaging 83.9 points per game. On the defensive end, BYU is ranked 57th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast daily on KSL Sports YouTube and KSL NewsRadio (SUBSCRIBE). Harper also co-hosts Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL NewsRadio.
Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYUathletics in the Big 12 Conference on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @Mitch_Harper.
