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USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Charles Curtis

Ranking all 68 of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament teams by mascot

March Madness is HERE.

And we know the next few days until the first round of the 2023 NCAA men’s tournament will be filled with you filling out your bracket, erasing it, filling it out again, tweaking it, tweaking it again and then making last-second changes before tip-off Thursday.

If you’re into doing deep research with stats, rankings, and history involved… then this isn’t the list for you.

This is the seventh annual version of the list to help you pick your bracket based on team nicknames or mascots.

My completely non-scientific system is based on a combination of moniker creativity, how threatening the mascot is and, sometimes, the look of the costumed thing.

Away we go:

68. Illinois Fighting Illini

We went over this last year:

There was apparently a push to get the belted kingfisher bird to be the university’s new mascot, but with no mascot at the moment, I have to put them at the bottom of the list along with some other mascot-less schools. At least they got rid of their previous mascot that was rightfully deemed offensive.

I haven’t seen anything indicating that the kingfisher has been pushed through, so we’ll keep them here for now.

67. San Diego State Aztecs

Again, universities with no mascots get ranked low — I haven’t seen anything about what they replaced the insensitive Aztec Warrior with.

66. Indiana Hoosiers

No mascot!

65. Arizona Wildcats

I say this every year: Wildcats is so bland and used by so many programs. Change the name!

64. Northwestern Wildcats

63. Kentucky Wildcats

62. Kansas State Wildcats

61. Auburn Tigers

There are also too many tigers!

60. Princeton Tigers

59. Texas Southern Tigers

58. Memphis Tigers

57. Missouri Tigers

56. Pittsburgh Panthers

The big cats that aren’t tigers or wildcats get extra points.

55. Montana State Bobcats

54. Vermont Catamounts

53. Charleston Cougars

52. Houston Cougars

51. Creighton Bluejays

As an editor, this drives me up the wall. IT’S BLUE JAYS, NOT BLUEJAYS. TYPO!

50. Nevada State Wolf Pack

49. N.C. State Wolfpack

They should play each other to figure out who gets the correct format.

48. Baylor Bears

Bears are scary.

47. UCLA Bruins

46. Southeastern Missouri State Redhawks

We like a splash of color.

45. Marquette Golden Eagles

44. Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

43. Kent State Golden Flashes

Reminds me of Dan Flashes from I Think You Should Leave

42. Maryland Terrapins

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

41. UConn Huskies

HERE COME THE DOGS! DOGS ARE THE BEST!

40. Drake Bulldogs

39. UNC Asheville Bulldogs

38. Gonzaga Bulldogs

AP Photo/Young Kwak

37. Missouri State Bulldogs

36. Texas A&M Aggies

They have a live dog mascot named Reveille!

35. Iowa State Cyclones

Named for a natural disaster, but this is their mascot:

William Purnell-USA TODAY Sports

34. Miami Hurricanes

See above.

33. VCU Rams

32. Arkansas Razorbacks

31. Howard Bison

30. UC Santa Barbara Gauchos

Steely Dan songs get good grades.

29. Alabama Crimson Tide

28. Texas A&M — Corpus Christi Islanders

I’ll repeat what I learned from last year:

OK, so they should be back with the other mascot-less after getting rid of the controversial Izzy the Islander last year.

But I’m giving them bonus points for teaching me something: When they were selected, I was flabergasted that they were called Islanders. What island is there in Texas? Turns out it’s located … on its own island!

27. Providence Friars

Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

Always frightening!

26. Penn State Nittany Lions

Matthew OHaren-USA TODAY Sports

I don’t know what it is, but I love how simple the mascot is.

25. Iowa Hawkeyes

24. Tennessee Volunteers

23. Duke Blue Devils

(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

22. Kennesaw State Owls

Owls are awesome, and this mascot is fantastic …

21. Florida Atlantic Owls

… As is this one NAMED OWLSLEY!

20. Boise State Broncos

Buster Bronco!

19. Utah State Aggies

18. Kansas Jayhawks

17. Texas Longhorns

16. Purdue Boilermakers

Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports

Another super creepy mascot, so we’ve reached the “please don’t hurt me” division.

15. Arizona State Sun Devils

Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

GAHHHH!

14. Colgate Raiders

13. USC Trojans

Whew, these two will save us.

12. Michigan State Spartans

11. Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns

I’m so bummed they’re mascot-less, but that nickname alone gets them this high.

10. West Virginia Mountaineers

Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

9. Xavier Musketeers

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

8. Virginia Cavaliers

Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports

7. Farleigh Dickinson Knights

6. TCU Horned Frogs

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

Looks like an alien!

5. Saint Mary’s Gaels

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Which Gael is better? This one?

4. Iona Gaels

Or this one?

3. Furman Paladins

SICK mascot, and points for not being just “knights.”

2. Grand Canyon Lopes

What is a lope? It’s an antelope! Points for uniqueness and look!

And the best of the best is ...

1. Northern Kentucky Norse

I cannot get enough of Victor E. Viking, both the name and the look:

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