Running 2010 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament thread

Didn't hear you bitch with Jim Burr on the last game...

 

So far, this game blows.

That is all.....

 

Not by anyone who knows what they're talking about.

 

You're forgetting that Utah did a few years ago. I don't remember anyone calling them that. They get that tag in football because of the racket that goes on in that sport.

 

Agreed. Thought Burr and his crew actually did a decent job.

It's mindboggling to me that they gave TV an Elite 8 game.

I hope Cal and Huggins make a living in his ass.

 

If we're going to sit here and say "Oh, Gonzaga has established a national presence, and so has Butler. So they're no longer mid-majors, even if they are in non-major conferences," then is the flip side to say that Oregon State/Northwestern/other mediocre major-conference basketball school is now a "mid-major" in basketball because they haven't done a damn thing?

(I'll happily hear arguments for the Indiana Hoosiers having descended into this status as well)

 

It's just Little Giant jealousy over Butler playing DePauw in the pre-season, isn't it?

 

There's something to be said for incompetence. Wins and losses have little to do with it. That's why "mid-major" can't be an arbitrary label, something that works along the lines of the earlier description of pornography. There has to be an actual classification to it and process behind it, and money is the easiest and clearest way to do it.

Essentially it says if you spend $2 million or more on hoops AND $20 million or more on athletics in general, you're a major school. Spend less in one or both categories, you're a mid-major.

And guess what, only eight conferences spend more in both. The ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Pac-10, Mountain West, and C-USA. Teams that have the money and don't do well are just incompetent, not mid-majors.

Being a mid-major isn't a state of mind or a simple label. It's a hard financial reality.

 

Utah made it in 1998. That's been a while now and about the same time as all the BCS crap started. So I think in the 12 years that passed Utah would indeed be called a mid-major. The Mountain West got three at-larges this year and those certainly went into the mid-major count that people like to talk about.