Quote:
Originally Posted by miami_fan
It may be time to re-define the term "mid-major" when it comes to D-1 basketball. It is nice to look at the size of the school or conference when it comes to deciding if a team is a mid major or not but I think that is getting to be disrespectful to many of those smaller schools. Gonzaga is a national title away from being an elite program IMO. Butler is a high quality program. Same with Xavier. Even though they were not selected for the tourney this year, Creighton is a very good program.
Compare that to some of the teams in the "major" conferences and without the names I would not be able to tell you who were the "majors" and who were the "mid majors". I like a lot of the stuff Frank Haith is doing with the Hurricanes but that is a mid major program at best right now IMO. Is Seton Hall a major program? Colorado? Ole Miss? Oregon State? I consider all of those programs to be much more fitting of the mid major profile than a school like Gonzaga, Butler or Western Kentucky.
There is always great debate about how a Gonzaga or St Mary would do in the Pac-10 or some other BCS conference. How would the teams I mentioned do in the Horizon, West Coast, or Missouri Valley. I would go as far as saying that if any of those schools were in the Horizon League this year, none of them would have won the league. To me, if 12th seeded Wisconsin beats 4th seeded Xavier, the cheers should be just as loud as if a 12th seeded Xavier beat a 4th seeded Wisconsin. To do otherwise is an insult to quality of the Xavier basketball program.
|
I think major conference means a lot more than just basketball. Two of those teams you mention (Col and Miami) have plenty of national titles in football so I don't see them moving to the horizon conference anytime soon. Oregon State and Old Miss would probably fit that bill also.
Panerd's mid-major definition: If you don't field a football team you are at best a mid-major.