Top 144: Northern Iowa ranked #53

[COUTEAU]

That's all I was saying, to begin with.

SHOX & ZAGS, will never be considered anything other than "Mid-Major".

First time I even heard that term, was while watching an IU game on TV. It was the late eighties or early nineties.
The late Al McGuire said....(and I'm paraphrasing)...As good as The Hoosiers are, they may not even be the best team in the state of Indiana, this season. Evansville, down in the Southern part of the state is putting together a pretty good program and playing some really good basketball, but will get little media attention, being classified as a Mid-Major.

I had no idea what a Mid-Major was. And, as the years rolled on, that term really never became truly clear.
But, it just just kinda settled into college basketball.
After reading the above comment, from, "mathewson 10", started doing a little Googling.

Best source I found was, good ol' Wikipedia....

Yes, what SHOX, ZAGS, and what BUTLER did should elevate them above schools like Nebraska or Northwestern.
But, it won't for SHOX and ZAGS and didn't for BUTLER, until they made the jump in conferences.

So, guess we all have Coach Jack, to thank for all that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-major



interesting article....from 2006-07
http://helenair.com/sports/mid-major-te ... 549de.html



go valley

[Wufan]

"Mid-major is a term used in American NCAA Division I college sports, especially men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the so-called "Power Five conferences"

The label Mid-Major is not based off how good a team is. It's based off what conference you are in. It has nothing to do with success. Nebraska & Northwestern are horrible at basketball traditionally but they would not be considered mid-major programs because of the conference they are in.

Yet the Big East isn't considered Mid-Major.

The old Big East wasn't. The new Big East is.

They aren't included in the Mid-Major top 15 poll.

[BirdmanBB]

Must we turn every non-shocker related post into a shocker related post?

[Ricardo del Rio]

Must we turn every non-shocker related post into a shocker related post?

No. I don't think so. I prefer to stay on topic.

What else would you like to talk about?

[Championz]

Must we turn every non-shocker related post into a shocker related post?

To the victors goes the spoils.

[Aargh]

Must we turn every non-shocker related post into a shocker related post?

We can probably avoid that as soon as another team in the Valley produces something worth talking about.

Evansville? Illinois State? Northern Iowa? Ready to earn an at large spot?

As long as the Shox are a perennial top-20 team and the rest of the Valley is hoping that in a really good year they can get an invite to the NIT, then the conversations are likely to turn to WSU.

[Wufan]

I'd over to hear more about other teams; what the newcomers look like, starting line-ups, projected style of play, etc.

[Rambler63]

"Mid-major is a term used in American NCAA Division I college sports, especially men's basketball, to refer to athletic conferences that are not among the so-called "Power Five conferences"

The label Mid-Major is not based off how good a team is. It's based off what conference you are in. It has nothing to do with success. Nebraska & Northwestern are horrible at basketball traditionally but they would not be considered mid-major programs because of the conference they are in.

Take a look at the budgets. Marquette and Georgetown both spent over $10 million on men's basketball in 2014, ranking 8th and 9th highest respectively in all of college basketball. Even Butler, last in the Big East, had a MBB budget of $4.06 million, which still ranked 91st, and would rank 2nd in the MVC. The AVERAGE Big East men's basketball budget was around $7 million.

Meanwhile, Gonzaga was $6.12 million (60th) and Wichita State led the MVC with $5.12 million (79th). The MVC average was around $2.5 million, but only WSU and Bradley were above that spend-- UNI, UE, MSU, Drake, Loyola, and ISUr all spent between $2.335 and $2.152 million. SIU and ISUb trailed the field at $1.7 and $1.6 million.

[COUTEAU]

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/12118