Mid-majors are getting the respect they've earned.

[Saluki762]

Sorry if this has been posted before. I looked a couple of pages back and didn't see it.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=186703

[shocker3]

These three paragraphs out of that article seem stupid to me. I like CBS's idea of talking about BCS and non-BCS teams. I have never liked the term mid-major and this guy's idea that the Valley is a mid but the Mountain West, A-10, and C-USA are not is a slap at the Valley. I believe we are closer to that "major fringe" right now than any of those 3 conferences:


"In fact, most of the teams that earned bids from outside the BCS leagues in 2004 were from leagues on the major fringe: the Mountain West, the Atlantic 10, Conference USA. The only true mid-major to make it then was Southern Illinois out of the Missouri Valley.

This year, however, Old Dominion made it out of the Colonial Athletic Association. It's the second year in a row the Colonial got multiple bids. SIU got there again. Butler was selected out of the Horizon League. Those are true mid-majors. There are far more of them in this tournament than there were in 2004.

Not only are Butler and Southern Illinois in, they received extremely comfortable seeds: Butler at No. 5 in the Midwest, SIU at No. 4 in the West. The committee showed great respect for their accomplishments. There hadn't been a true-mid major seeded as high as No. 5 since Princeton in 1998."

[bstall]

Yeah they may be getting the respect they deserve from the media bu the selection process leaves a lot to be desired. There are too many mid major playing other mid majors in the first round. Bulter-ODU, Southern-Holy Cross( which I can see with how high SIU is seeded) Nevada-Creighton and you can even throw in BYU-Xavier as neither the MWC or A10 are power conferences.

This is something that i noticed when the brackets came out and was called out today on ESPN.

[Brave2001]

Sorry if this has been posted before. I looked a couple of pages back and didn't see it.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=186703

He's absolutely Correct. That graphic was way skewed. It's not an apples and apples comparison. Conference USA as of 2004 was considered a Major conference. Atlantic 10 waffled between Major and Mid status with the likes of Xavier and Umass.

If you actually made an apples to apples comparison you would probably find that the number of midmajor at larges this year is down 1 or 2 when compared to previous years.

However, as its been shown all week here on VT, its always easier to let your emotions and snap judgements run your thought processes instead of actually taking the time to look at the real data.

[Brave2001]

Yeah they may be getting the respect they deserve from the media bu the selection process leaves a lot to be desired. There are too many mid major playing other mid majors in the first round. Bulter-ODU, Southern-Holy Cross( which I can see with how high SIU is seeded) Nevada-Creighton and you can even throw in BYU-Xavier as neither the MWC or A10 are power conferences.

This is something that i noticed when the brackets came out and was called out today on ESPN.

Posted this in a previous thread.

SIU is a 4 seed. The potential list of 13 seed opponents is Davidson, Holy Cross, New Mexico State, Albany. A 100% shot at playing a mid...imagine that.

Butler is a 5 seed. The potenial list of 12 seed opponents is Old Dominion, Long Beach State, Illinois, and Arkansas. A 50% shot at playing another mid...imagine that.

Nevada is a 7 seed. The potentail list of 10 seed opponents is Georgia Tech, Gonzaga, Texas Tech, Creighton. A 50% shot at playing another mid.

So out of 32 total games, exactly 2 games have a mid playing a mid (SIU doesnt count as a 4 seed they were gonna play a mid no matter what). And in those 2 cases they had a 50% chance at playing a mid. Wow....what a conspiracy theory...

:puke:

[Omahaboundshock]

He's absolutely Correct. That graphic was way skewed. It's not an apples and apples comparison. Conference USA as of 2004 was considered a Major conference. Atlantic 10 waffled between Major and Mid status with the likes of Xavier and Umass.

If you actually made an apples to apples comparison you would probably find that the number of midmajor at larges this year is down 1 or 2 when compared to previous years.

However, as its been shown all week here on VT, its always easier to let your emotions and snap judgements run your thought processes instead of actually taking the time to look at the real data.


I think the Valley has fit that A-10 role the last few years. Let's face it, all of the non-BCS at-large bids are going to come from the "major fringe" conferences or teams. The only non-BCS teams that are going to get at-larges are a Gonzaga or a team from the A-10, Valley, MWC, WAC, Horizon, CAA, or C-USA. All of these conferences are the top non-BCS leagues and these are the only ones that will get these extra bids. Conferences like the Metro Atlantic never get at large bids.

A few years ago C-USA, MWC, and the A-1O were these top non-BCS leagues. Today the Valley, MWC, WAC and CAA I believe are the top leagues. They are still non-BCS. I think the CBS comparison is very fair. I do think that the only valid argument is that probably 2 bids transferred from the non-BCS conferences to the Big East when a few CUSA teams transferred to the Big East. Xavier and UMass are still in the A-10, so the A-10 before and now should be viewed the same.

Anyway you look at it, the BCS teams are slowly but surely trying to take all of the extra money avialable. Stanford with an rpi of 65 should have never been in this year's tournament to start with. And like Seton Hall last year, they looked awful in their one tournament game.