With SLU on the outside looking NIT, conference tournaments firing up tomorrow, and one more week in the regular season for most, today seems like a great day to fire up the NBK supercomputer and see which men’s college basketball schools are poised to make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since the field was expanded to 64 back in 1985. These are the Never Been Kissed.

Last year, you may recall we had three graduates from these ranks. Creighton secured a 5-seed and benefitted from a bit of March Madness to make the second weekend. Oregon St. fought and cursed their way to a Pac-12 auto-bid, then gnawed their way from a 12-seed all the way to the Elite Eight. And Oral Roberts were the fixation of this nation when they beat Ohio St and Florida before Arkansas ended their magical run.

Previous grads include Houston and Virginia Tech in 2019, South Carolina in 2017 — all the way to the Final Four — and Dayton back in 2014. Will any of these break through this year?

This year’s field is noticeable weaker than last year’s, with none in the Top 20 and the lowest well into the 100s. UC Irvine, Princeton, Liberty, and South Alabama are all tops in their conference in KenPom, but are not leading the conference in the standings and therefore not projected into the field of 68 by Joey Brackets.

Also notable out of this group is the giant spread among the 12-seeds present. San Francisco (a strong #25 in KenPom) and North Texas (40) are woefully underseeded, while South Dakota St‘s position (69) should please all parties, and Iona (87) are getting a Rick Pitino boost. Don’t see your forlorn school here? Never fear – Oregon St. and Oral Roberts were not even on our radar at this time last year. So you Rutgers, St. Bonaventure, and Colorado fans don’t give up just yet.

Data courtesy Kenpom.com and ESPN Bracketology