Flashback a decade and it was rare to find a mid major team in the Top 25.  Now it’s common to see one in the Top 10 and 5+ teams in the Top 25.   What happened?  Over the past decade, we’ve seen a lot more parody in the NCAA College Basketball, causing these teams to get better.  It also used to be a feel good story when a mid major team won their first round game, now we’ve seen these teams favored to make the Top 16, a few have made the Elite 8, and a couple years ago George Mason made the Final Four.

With the additional respect that has been earned by these conferences comes additional bids to the big dance.  Teams this year like Drake, Butler, Gonzaga and St. Mary’s (to name a few) all went into their conference tournaments knowing they were already in the Big Dance.   This means there is an opportunity for other teams within the conference to win an automatic bid, increasing the number of potential “Cinderella” stories in the tournament.

What has changed over the past decade is that more mid major bids means less bids for the BCS schools.   Teams that in the past would have gotten in will be left out because there are a limited number of spots.  This week alone we’ve seen more and more spots gobbled up by mid major schools than I can remember in recent history. 

Do they deserve to be there?  In my opinion, the answer is yes.  Others tend to disagree.   Do you like seeing more mid major teams representing?  Or would you prefer to see more BCS schools get into the Big Dance?

Popularity: 2% [?]