What is a mid-major? Drawing the lines once and for all

[Harry]

So what is a mid-major? It’s a question that nobody has been able to agree on a concrete definition. For some, a mid-major is any team that doesn’t play in one of the five biggest conferences. Others include basketball conferences like the AAC & the Big East, as teams like Georgetown and Connecticut clearly don’t recruit or play like scrappy underdogs.

The definition that makes the most sense to me is to add two groups that aren’t often included and create four groups: Power, High-Major, Mid-Major, and Low-Major. While conference realignment has blurred the lines between some conferences, the moves between conferences also help to show where those lines are.

Several conferences that are often called mid-majors don’t really fit the description. The Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Missouri Valley, and Mountain West all suffer from a lack of name programs that the power conferences have, but each of the four expects to send multiple teams to the tournament just about every year. The addition of BYU to the West Coast Conference lands them in this category as well. In stronger seasons, any of these conferences are capable of securing more bids than most of the Power Conferences, but as the C-USA and Missouri Valley found out in 2014, they can wind up with only one tournament bid as well.

Read more: http://bustingbrackets.com/2014/08/20/mid-major-drawing-lines/

[UNT90]

We have sunk to the level of low major.

And still nothing has been done about it.

[untjim1995]

I like that author's definitions of power, high-major, mid-major, and low-major. To me, CUSA is a mid-major league. Its a one-bid league most years going forward, unless you catch lightning in a bottle every once-in-a-while, like the SBC did on occasion. The powers are the P5 + Big East. The high majors are the AAC, MWC, WCC, A10, and the MVC--they will usually send multiple teams to the tournament every year. To me, a mid-major league is one that can, on occasion, send more than one team to the tournament, but usually just one team gets in and is seeded somewhere from 8-13. A low-major gets one team in and is seeded always as a 14 seed or higher. The only time a mid-major gets seeded that poorly is when the atumatic league qualifier has a poor overall record but wins the conference tournament.

[oldguystudent]

The mid-major poll as defined by CollegeInsider.com

The Mid-Major Poll is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast, Western Athletic.

[MCMLXXX]

We are listed as a high major. Where did you get the idea this article says we are a low major?

Edited August 22, 2014 by MCMLXXX

[UNT90]

I get it from watching Benford coached teams play.

[HoustonEagle]

"Who gives a shit, it's outta here"