MidMajors now just Majors?

[bedir than average]

Looking at the current basketball Sagarin rankings I'm noticing a lot of "midMajor" schools in the top 25

Memphis at 5 (2-0 v top 50)
Xavier at 7 (1-1 v top 50)
Butler at 12 (1-0 v t.50)
G-Town at 14 (0 v t.50)
Gonzaga at 15 (1-0 v t.50)
BYU at 22 (1-1 v t.50)

By Conference
The seperation between the PAC10 (#1) and the Big10 (#6) is 3 points. Three of the midMajors are within that same distance of the Big10 - Missouri Valley, Mountain West and A-10.

With the MVC getting 3 teams recently, are we about to see a time when a midMajor gets as many teams as a "Major?"

[dlb]

I don't think G-Town, which plays in the Big East, could qualify as a midmajor. If you're going by the size of the school, you could put Duke in that list, too. But your point is a good one, college basketball has nearly achieved parity. Any school that wants to compete at the top levels can.

[BravesRule22]

Memphis, GTown and Xavier deft are not midmajors

You can argue that Gonzaga is no longer one either

Only 2 on that list would be BYU and Butler

[bedir than average]

Sorry about G-town, was using my Football memory, forgot that the BigEast adds teams for basketball that don't play football.

The rest are schools that don't play in Major conferences, and that's kind of what I'm getting at, is the midMajor conferences are getting stronger and might this year get as many teams as the Majors

[BravesRule22]

I dont think we will ever get to the point were its 50 / 50, especially this year were it seems that the Majors have gotten stronger were as you arent hearing THAT much about the midmajors. Now of course all that could change because we are still very early in the season but I think we might be heading back to the " normal " and not sure if we will see a big midmajor run deep into the tourny this year. I just dont see a really strong midmajor team right now that jumps out at me.

[bedir than average]

There are five midMajors in the Top 25, but I guess the 5th ranked team in the nation isn't strong?

Maybe our difference is in the definition of midMajor, as I've always thought of them as the conference and teams collectively that make up the conference.

[BravesRule22]

Memphis is NOT a midmajor, no1 would consider them a midmajor.

So no, I dont count them

[dlb]

Yeah, Memphis is a mid-major - they play in a mid-major conference. This makes a huge difference in that they don't have to work real hard to get a tourney bid. Now, they are also a very good team at a school with a decent basketball tradition, but they are still a mid-major.

[unreal654]

Originally Posted by BravesRule22

Memphis, GTown and Xavier deft are not midmajors

You can argue that Gonzaga is no longer one either

Only 2 on that list would be BYU and Butler

dlb is right, Memphis a mid-major.

So is Xavier.

GTown is not.

[BravesRule22]

How the heck is Memphis a midmajor ???????

Since when was conf USA considered a midmajor, was Louisville EVER considered a midmajor ?

Some teams in that conf maybe considered midmajors like SMU, Rice and the like but I dont recall Memphis or Louisville ever being midmajors.....same goes for Xavier

[bedir than average]

MidMajor is almost never used to describe a school, but a conference.

Conference USA is a fairly week conference, its not as if they regularly get 4 schools into the tourney.

[BravesRule22]

Not saying they do but Memphis is certainly not a midmajor like George Mason is

[dlb]

A midmajor conference is one that is in the BCS, but not one of the six conferences that gets an automatic bid. C-USA is a midmajor.

Division I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[BravesRule22]

I dont think you can compare football conf to bball ones

[bedir than average]

Mid-major - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Note that a very strong team in a mid-major conference may be effectively a major program; the most notable examples of this being Gonzaga of the WCC and Memphis of the "new" (post-realignment) C-USA. Additionally, some programs from lower-rated conferences which are not usually considered "mid-major" may produce teams on level with the better mid-major teams. Some examples from recent years include: Winthrop, Bucknell, Vermont, and Pacific. The A-10, WAC, C-USA and MWC, and recently MVC are also sometimes considered "Tweeners" as their performance is generally lower than the 6 "major" conferences and higher than all other conferences, including the "Mid-major" conferences. The "Tweener" conferences tend to have teams that perform at a "Major" level with "Major" level support- an example is Memphis in C-USA, Nevada in the WAC and BYU and UNLV (and until recently, Utah) in the MWC.

So yes, there seems to be some disagreement as to what constitutes a midMajor, but it would seem there is a general consensus that the term applies to a conference.