March Madness: 10 teams that deserve your fandom

March Madness gives small programs big fan boosts every year, so here are the top 10 teams that need your fandom.

March Madness now sees 68 teams every year. Roughly half of those are power schools with large fanbases but what about everyone else? There are over 350 programs in D1 and nobody can be expected to follow them all closely. Even come tournament time, many fans will never see opponents outside their bracket region.

Middle Tennessee State did themselves a huge favor by beating Michigan State last March. They immediately became everyone’s darling and rode into this year as a highly-respected mid-major from Conference USA. They won’t sneak up on anyone, including their opening opponent Minnesota. The real question is who should fans try and follow this year?

It is easy to pick a school like Northwestern for making their first ever NCAA Tournament, but the power school from Chicago has plenty of fans already. Same for a power mid like Saint Mary’s, Wichita State or VCU. The fun is hunting through the field and seeing which small programs have the best nickname, unknown superstar, or otherwise undefinable quality that makes following them so enjoyable during the best tournament in all of sports.

Who knows, you might just find your new favorite team for next year.