A10 Midmajors...

1863 Views 9 Replies 10 Participants Last post by marcusmv3, Mar 23, 2006

mateer

Discussion Starter · Mar 22, 2006

(*We know there are varying definitions of the term mid-major, so I called midmajority.com maven Kyle Whelliston, the bard of the mid-majors, and asked him. He doesn't include Conference USA, the big-city half of the Atlantic 10 or the Mountain West, but he does include the Missouri Valley and the Colonial. Gonzaga, of course, is a hard one to define, but if you read my story in this week's mag, I think I provide enough support that you can still get away with calling the Zags a mid-major. That said, perhaps the most accurate term for Mason, WSU, Bradley and Gonzaga this week isn't mid-majors but rather tournament powerhouses.)

Grant Wahl's SI article

Who is the non big city "half" of the A10? St. Bonnaventure..? Rhode Island..? Can't be Umass or Rhode Island because he doesn't list them on the midmajors going deep in the tournament article. Ummm... Dayton? How big is that city? So the Bonnies = half? What does that mean?

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GW Dawgs

· #2 · Mar 22, 2006

• The 'Bag loves researching the history of language, and we got a kick out of trying to divine the origin of the term mid-major last week. The first mention we could find was in an article in the Nov. 30, 1977, issue of the Washington Post. Jack Kvancz, then the coach at Catholic University and now the AD at George Washington, had this to say about a game against Howard: "It was everything that basketball's about at the level of our program. For a game between two 'mid-majors,' or whatever you'd call us, it had anything you could ask for."

('Bag participation alert! If anyone can find evidence of the term mid-major being used before 1977, please contact us and we'll get it into next week's Final Four 'Bag.)

Digging even further into the history of mid-major. I'm perplexed as well about what constitutes the "mid-major" label of some teams in the A-10 and the MWC.

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RhodeIslandRed

· #3 · Mar 23, 2006

There's the BCS cartel and there's everyone else. That's the easiest, neatest, cleanest way to separate the power from the non-power, the haves from the have-nots.

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Blue Dog

· #4 · Mar 23, 2006

mateer said:
Who is the non big city "half" of the A10? St. Bonnaventure..? Rhode Island..? Can't be Umass or Rhode Island because he doesn't list them on the midmajors going deep in the tournament article. Ummm... Dayton? How big is that city? So the Bonnies = half? What does that mean?

He's got Dayton in 1984 on that list, but they were an independent back then.

Someone should publish some definitive criteria on what constitutes a high, mid and low major so we can be done with this discussion, although it is kind of fun.

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ktabz16

· #5 · Mar 23, 2006

i would say.... who cares?

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NCFlyer

· #6 · Mar 23, 2006

What's the point of this classification. It's almost like stereotyping people. What does it accomplish other than to give sports writers something to write about. As we've seen in this tournament anyone can be taken down on a given night...doesn't really matter if your name is Ohio State, Carolina or Mich State.

:cheers:

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DC Muskie

· #7 · Mar 23, 2006

This is the dumbest discussion in all of sports.

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ExplorerSteve

· #8 · Mar 23, 2006

I reprove of this thread.

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American X

· #9 · Mar 23, 2006

A distinguishing characteristic of major programs is the ability to have guarantee games.

That being said, I agree this remains the stupidest discussion in sports.

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marcusmv3

· #10 · Mar 23, 2006

We all say this is the stupidest discussion, but if we were to read our posts in the A10 can right itself thread, the general message there is that perception = reality. Isn't how our conference is perceived by people outside of it significant?

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