SLUDrew Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 According to Lunardi, the BCS Conferences, the A-10, Mountain West, C-USA and Gonzaga are high majors. His criteria is basically that multiple bids are a given every year and the goal is a final four. On the other hand, mid major conferences will get multiple bids only every so often and the goal is the sweet 16. Here in the link but you have to be an Insider to read the whole piece. http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog?name=ncbexperts&id=5938515 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bay Area Billiken Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 According to Lunardi, the BCS Conferences, the A-10, Mountain West, C-USA and Gonzaga are high majors. His criteria is basically that multiple bids are a given every year and the goal is a final four. On the other hand, mid major conferences will get multiple bids only every so often and the goal is the sweet 16. Here in the link but you have to be an Insider to read the whole piece. http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog?name=ncbexperts&id=5938515 By definition, the A-10 is not considered to be a mid-major. There actually is a written explanation out there. The A-10 is in a category between the BCS conferences and the mid-majors. The difference between the A-10 and the non-BCS, FBS conferences (Mountain West, C-USA, at one time the WAC) is FBS football, with the exception of Temple and reportedly UMass in the future. This being said, Wikipedia lists the A-10, the Mountain West, C-USA, and the WAC as mid-majors, noting debate as to the Mountain West and the WAC. Frankly, there's no way the Mountain West is a mid-major now. The Mountain West is probably ahead of the Pac-10 at this point in basketball, and the Pac-10 below the top 2 was way down in Football this season too. I don't see how Temple (A-10) could be classified as a mid-major either. The future WAC will be a very different league with many of its top teams headed to the Mountain West. Gonzaga has been struggling a bit this season. Gonzaga got blown out at Washington State. I just saw Washington State win in OT at Santa Clara. Gonzaga has returning players, and after seeing WSU, I was surprised at what happened to the Zags in Pullman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearvision Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Gonzaga did just beat Baylor though, a highly regarded team with some NBA talent. The Zags are turning into the blueprint for mid-major teams, and a coaching hierarchy being established for a program to just plug and play if the previous coach leaves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bay Area Billiken Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Gonzaga did just beat Baylor though, a highly regarded team with some NBA talent. The Zags are turning into the blueprint for mid-major teams, and a coaching hierarchy being established for a program to just plug and play if the previous coach leaves. Baylor is a good win for the Zags, and the game was in Dallas. Gonzaga also has a win over Marquette, and plays Xavier in Spokane tomorrow night. The rest of the WCC tries to emulate Gonzaga. Gonzaga is everyone else's big game. The team to watch out here, whether or not it is considered a mid-major, is San Diego State from the Mountain West. That team is very good, very athletic, perhaps capable of winning a game or two in the NCAA Tournament. I saw the Aztecs drill Cal by 20 points in Berkeley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUDrew Posted December 21, 2010 Author Share Posted December 21, 2010 I think this is an interesting discussion. I think the A-10, along with the MWC and C-USA, falls into a real gray area when it comes to pigeon holing the conference. We have high majors (Temple and X) all the way down to a low major(Fordham) and some that swing wildly between the two extremes (St. Joe's being one) As for SLU, we are clearly a "mid-major" at this point if your definition is, as Lunardi states, a program which would feel a national championship level of exuberance by making the sweet 16. However, I think we would all agree the potential is there to become a consistent high major program . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 -hey bay area or someone, i typically try to watch gonz when they play but to this point have only caught part of a couple games...kst where they got whacked pretty good and nd where i thought they did not play like a typical gonz team in the last 5 minutes, what is going on with them this season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bay Area Billiken Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 -hey bay area or someone, i typically try to watch gonz when they play but to this point have only caught part of a couple games...kst where they got whacked pretty good and nd where i thought they did not play like a typical gonz team in the last 5 minutes, what is going on with them this season? Zags are only 6-5, including a win over NAIA Lewis-Clark State. Zags have good wins over Marquette (in KC) and Baylor (Dallas), and losses to San Diego State (at home in Spokane), K-State (in KC), Illinois (in Seattle), Wash. State on the road, and Notre Dame on the road. The one loss on that list that stands out for me is Wash. State. I recognize at least 3 returning players, a forward, a shooting guard, and the Center, and they are good players. So the bottom line is I'm not sure what's the story with this year's Zags. I saw a bit of their loss to Illinois, and the WSU game was the same night at SD State at Cal. We joined that Zags-WSU game in the second half and had to do double takes at the score. But that was a big win over Baylor. So maybe the Zags have righted the ship and will be ready for WCC play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearvision Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Former Fab 5 coach Steve Fischer has things rolling out in San Diego. UNLV looks to be good for a long time as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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