The Changing Landscape Needs More Change

My first bracketology of the year will be out sometime in the next 48 hours and it got me thinking about how much the landscape of College Basketball has changed over the past 20 years.  

Right around 1995 we had the 6 power conferences and a bunch of mid-majors.  Sure, it was a nice story when there was a first round upset but none of those Mid-Majors really did anything.  Then along came Gonzaga, who not only won a couple games but became mainstay’s in the top 25 and the tournament.  With this, the term Low-Major sprung out of the Mid-Major teams.  It was easy to distinguish teams now.  The Power conferences were the big 6, the conferences that could possibly send 2 teams and maybe win a game or two became the Mid-Majors, and everybody else was a Low-Major.  The Mid-Majors were still thought of as a secondary conference and really only consisted of the Atlantic 10, the Missouri Valley, Conference USA, and at the time the WAC (And later the Mountain West).  Everybody else was a Low -Major.  Ah, but then came the glory years of the Colonial Conference who broke through that Low-Major ceiling by sending George Mason and then VCU all the way to the Final Four.  And what about Butler reaching the finals two years in a row?  What to do with them?  We can’t have 6,7,8 or more Mid-Majors running around?  A solution was upon us quickly.  These new conferences that were making waves, the Coloinials, WCC’s, and Horizon’s would become the new Mid Major’s and the old Mid Major’s would become the High Majors.  Now the NCAA was back in business with your easy 4 division breakdown, the Power Conferences (who were about to shrink from 6 to 5), the High Majors, the Mid Majors, and the Low Majors.  They had their hierarchy and the Internet, specifically ESPN, was ready to lay it all out for people accordingly.  Big Monday?  Gone, nobody wants to see the Big West.  Let’s show them Power team after Power team.  Super Tuesday, ACC Wednesday, and Super Crappy SEC Thursday.  It was all right there labeled for every Tom, Dick, and Harry.  You don’t want to see any of these other 300 teams.  Let Fox Sports 1 show these unwatchable teams.

But, a revolution is starting.  Real fans don’t see Gonzaga and say Mid Major.  Nobody looks at Wichita State as a cute little abnormality.  The A-10?  Sending more teams then the SEC to the tournament.  Does any true College Basketball fan really look at Dayton, Butler, San Diego State, BYU, and VCU and say it’s surprising when they do well?  And are those same fans labeling Northwestern, Rutgers, Wake Forest, and Virginia Tech “Power” teams?  The landscape is changing and the constant realignment isn’t covering up the gaping holes at the bottom of these top conferences.  It’s time the NCAA, and the talking heads on ESPN quit trying to bury these “smaller” schools and embrace what each team brings to the overall table.  Sure, the Blue Bloods, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, Kansas, and UNC will always be there but the future after that are the Gonzaga's, the VCU's, and the Butler's...not TCU, Nebraska, Auburn, and Northwestern.