Which Division I schools reached the postseason in every major sport?

Memorial Day in the regular world is a day of remembrance and reflection. In college athletics, it's the beginning of the end: the field of 64 is announced in the Division I baseball tournament, the final event of the athletic year.

That means it's time to take inventory of which schools succeeded across the board in all the major team sports: football, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball -- the major sport for each sex in the fall, winter and spring, respectively. (This is America so, no, soccer and hockey don't count. Take it up with George Washington if you don't like it.)

Our criteria is simple: did you make the postseason -- no, the NIT and the like don't count -- or did you not? 

We'll start with the major men's sports. 

FBS schools that made a bowl game and the NCAA men's basketball tournament: 21

This number is down 25 percent from last year's 28. 

FCS schools that reached the postseason in football and the men's basketball tournament: 4

Drake
Duquesne
Howard
South Dakota State

Our list of 25 schools that reached the postseason (no, the NIT and the like don't count) in football and hoops is down to just a dozen when we move to the diamond.

D1 teams that reached the postseason in football + men's basketball + baseball: 12

* Drake, Duquesne, Howard, Iowa State and Wisconsin do not sponsor baseball. Also, a special shoutout to FBS newcomer James Madison for being the only Group of 5 school to reach the postseason in every major men's sport. 

Now let's bring the women in. 

D1 schools that reached the postseason in football + men's basketball + baseball + women's basketball: 8

* - Drake and Iowa State not offer baseball, but reached the postseason in the other three sports. 

And now volleyball:

D1 schools to reach the postseason in all three major men's sports + women's basketball + volleyball: 4

Iowa State*
Texas
Texas A&M
Tennessee

* - Does not offer baseball

And now softball.

D1 schools to reach the postseason in all three major men's sports + all three major women's sports: 3

Tennessee
Texas
Texas A&M

This is the second straight year both UTs went 6-for-6, and Tennessee has actually pulled off the feat in three straight years. Now that we've whittled the list down from 300+ to three, let's make this needlessly competitive and award three points to the school that performs best in each sport, two to second place and one to third. We'll award an extra point for a national championship. 

Football: Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher and lost in the Texas Bowl. Tennessee authored a solid response to 2022's Orange Bowl victory, winning the Citrus Bowl and finishing No. 17 in both polls, but clearly Texas is the answer here as a CFP participant. Texas 3, Tennessee 2, A&M 1.

Volleyball: No debate here. Texas eliminated A&M and Tennessee en route to its second straight national championship. Texas 4, Tennessee 2, A&M 1.

Men's Basketball: Texas A&M put up a solid showing in the Big Dance, dropping 98 points on Nebraska in the first round and then pushing No. 1 seed Houston to a 100-95 final score in the second round. But Tennessee reached the Elite Eight, and knocked out Texas in the second round. UT gets the nod over A&M as a higher seed. Tennessee 3, Texas 2, A&M 1.

Women's Basketball: Texas actually had a somewhat disappointing run, losing in the Elite Eight to No. 3 NC State as a No. 1 seed, while playing without All-America caliber point guard Rori Harmon. Still, it was enough to win the sport; Tennessee lost in the second round (to NC State, ironically) and fired their head coach afterward. A&M snuck in the field as a No. 11 seed and lost in the first round (to Nebraska, ironically). Texas 3, Tennessee 2, A&M 1.

Softball: No. 1 Texas survived a heated charge from No. 16 Texas A&M to reach the Women's College World Series, while No. 3 Tennessee lost at home to Alabama in the Super Regionals. Texas 3, Tennessee 2, A&M 1.

Baseball: Tennessee is the No. 1 overall seed, Texas A&M is No. 3 overall, and Texas is the 3-seed in A&M's regional. TBD. (Postseason update: Tennessee won the national championship [4 points], A&M finished runner up [2], and Texas lost in the A&M Regional [1]. The Longhorns turned out okay though.)

Our scoreboard looks like Texas 16, Tennessee 15, A&M 7. Texas A&M has shown massive growth from year to year, and there's tons of reasons for optimism with AD Trev Alberts and HFC Mike Elko new to Aggieland. Tennessee has followed up last year's stellar performance with another great year.... but Texas is on a completely other level right now as an athletics department.

The Longhorns won the NACDA Director's Cup in 2020-21 and 2021-22, finished second in 2022-23, and will finish first or second again this year.

Those three schools hit for the cycle, but who else came close?

D1 schools to reach the postseason in 5 of the 6 major sports: 7 

Alabama
Arizona
Auburn
Duke
Florida State
Kentucky
Oregon

Auburn reached the field in every sport but baseball; Florida State missed in men's basketball; Kentucky and Oregon missed in women's basketball; and Alabama, Arizona, and Duke missed in volleyball. 

Also, Wisconsin missed the postseason in women's basketball and softball, but they'd have gone 5-for-6 if we'd swapped the stick-and-ball sports for stick-and-puck. Women's hockey reached the national championship game. 

Now, to the flip side of the coin. We'll limit our purview to the Power 5, since they demand most of the at-large bids. 

Power 5 schools to miss the postseason in all but one major sport: 5

Arizona State -- Volleyball reached the Sweet 16, but baseball was the only other Big 6 sport to finish their final Pac-12 season above .500. Softball went 3-21. (!?!?!) Men's hockey was good, though.  

Boston College -- Football beat AAC champ/future ACC member SMU in the Fenway Bowl, which was fun, maybe? The folks in Chestnut Hill would undoubtedly like us to mention BC's men's hockey team reached the national title game and women's lacrosse won the national title. 

Pitt -- The Panthers' volleyball team reaching the Final Four was the high point of 2023-24 in Pittsburgh, and the 22-11 men's hoops team missing the Big Dance was the low point.

Rutgers -- Football and softball were the only one of the six to finish above .500. The Prinstripe Bowl win over Miami was as good as it got for the Scarlet Knights in 2023-24. 

Wake Forest -- Saved by the bell, the Demon Deacons got an at-large berth in baseball, but that's all. 

Power 5 teams to miss the postseason in every major sport: 1

No school is looking to turn the page to 2024-25 faster than Cincinnati.

Cincinnati does not offer softball but, do not fret, the Bearcats didn't reach the NCAA Tournament in women's soccer or women's lacrosse, either. In fact, baseball was the only team on campus to finish their inaugural Big 12 season over .500 in conference play.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone, but some ADs will enjoy it more than others.

As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.