Term 'mid-major' finally dies in college basketball lexicon

[station19]

After years spent on life support, term 'mid-major' finally dies in college basketball lexicon

"RIP, "mid-major." It was a good run.

The term that for years has derisively referred to programs residing somewhere outside the major conferences of college basketball has died. It was 37 years old.

Mid-major had been on life support for nearly a decade as schools such as George Mason, VCU, Butler and Wichita State crashed the Final Four. What had previously been the bastion of blue bloods such as North Carolina, Kentucky and Duke was thrown open to schools with tiny enrollments and modest fan bases, yet enough talent to shake the college basketball establishment."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/247336021.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

 

[Dano564]

I think the Atlantic 10 is the last mid-major conference left.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Bah humbug. It's still an appropriate label, IMO.

It's tiring to listen to the inferiority complex from the local Vegas sports radio personalities on the perceived lack of respect for the small schools. For football, even before Boise St was in the Mountain West, the Vegas sports radio guys were banging on how they didn't get enough respect.

Lately, they've been harping on how Wichita State should be #1, etc. If they're not the best team in the country, or even close to it, why should they be #1? They're still a Mid-Major, playing in a Mid-Major conference, just like the Mountain West.

Listening to the bookmakers' radio spot this morning was very interesting. They polled most all of the top oddsmakers in Vegas in the last couple of days and on average, the oddsmakers would have 12 different teams favored over WSU, on a neutral court; one oddsmaker even had 17 different teams that they would have favored against WSU on a neutral.

The only poll I ever pay any attention to is the Oddsmakers Poll. Period.

Sorry, a Mid-Major is still a Mid-Major in my book.

 

[Dano564]

When I read the headline I thought they meant there are no mid-majors in the fact that it's all majors now (Big 6-7 conferences) and then everyone else is single-bid conferences except for maybe two. (Atlantic 10 and MWC).

The article seemed argue that they are all the same using Gonzaga as an example. Meanwhile, Gonzaga has basically been overseeded in every tournament but one based on their performance since that one good run they had when they beat a depleted Gopher team. Whoever won that game had a great draw that year because Stanford was the 2 seed and overrated at that.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

based on their performance since that one good run they had when they beat a depleted Gopher team.

You just HAD to bring that up, didn't you?...

And here it had probably been WEEKS since I had given any thought to Ganglegate and the events around that one special week....

 

[XMan]

Mid major term is alive and well. Gonzaga sucks. Always an over rated program year after year.