Each year, the NCAA Tournament provides fans with schools that not many people have heard of. In 2006, George Mason went to the Final Four as an 11-seed. In 2011, Butler—led by Gordon Hayward—went to the national title game. VUC, an 11-seed, went to the Final Four and even defeated Kansas in the Elite Eight.
In 2012, it was Andy Enfield’s Florida Gulf Coast team who defeated No. 2 seed Georgetown and then ended up in the Sweet 16, becoming the first-ever 15 seed to make it that far. Loyola Chicago was the Cinderella story in 2018, and who can forget Saint Peter’s magical Elite Eight run in 2022?
With conference tournaments in full force, there is one sub-.500 team that punched its ticket to the Big Dance on Tuesday night: the St. Francis (PA) Red Storm. St. Francis defeated Central Connecticut State, 46-43, to win the Northeast Conference Tournament and earn an automatic bid.
In fact, St. Francis has an NIL budget of $0, as CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander reported.
“Enrollment is under 2,500. It’s one of the smallest Division I schools in the country, with a humble campus in a small community in the middle of nowheresville Pennsylvania. The school has an NIL budget of precisely $0. Krimmel isn’t boasting about that, but he did tell me it made getting into the NCAA Tournament — where some schools with NIL budgets north of $7 million and $8 million await — that much more gratifying.”
Moreover, this is the first NCAA Tournament berth for St. Francis since 1991, breaking a streak of 34 years.
St. Francis basketball entered the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Red Storm defeated Wagner and Long Island, each by three points, before topping Central Connecticut State, also by three points.
The Red Storm were 10-17 after a loss to Central Connecticut State on Feb. 15, but they won three straight to finish the regular season and now are going to the Big Dance.
Where is St. Francis located?
St. Francis (PA) is located in Loretto, Pennsylvania, and had a registered population of 1,168 in the 2023 census. The private Catholic institution spans its campus across 600 acres in a small town in Pennsylvania.
Moreover, it had an undergraduate enrollment of just 2,450 in fall 2023.
Now, St. Francis will be on the NCAA Tournament bracket with the win in the Northeast tournament. Joe Lunardi of ESPN has St. Francis as a 16-seed facing off against American in one of the First Four games.
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