NCAA Basketball: Are SoCon, ASUN and Ohio Valley multi-bid leagues?

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 15: A general view of the court with March Madness signage is seen prior to the start of the game between the OklahomaSooners and the Rhode Island Rams in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 15: The Belmont Bruins celebrate their 74-72 win over the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion on December 15, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images) /

This season is shaping up as a perfect storm that should lead to mid-major teams earning unlikely at-large bids. If they don’t, they may never will.

Note: All records and rankings are through games on Feb. 18

Every year it seems we hear about how weak the bubble is and how mediocre the middle of the multi-bid conferences are, this year that discourse seems to have reached an even higher pitch. As we sit less than two weeks away from the beginning of conference tournaments and three from those multi-bid leagues beginning theirs, that debate is heating up, should the last bids to the NCAA Tournament go to those struggling high-major teams, or should they go to mid-major teams that have had successful seasons despite the fact they play in less competitive conferences.

My answer to this question is this, if those spots don’t go to mid-major teams this season, they might as well never. Now, I’m not naïve, I know the majority of the at-large berths will go to high-major schools, that is just the nature of the business based on the conferences they play in. But this year there is high-quality mid-major teams having good years that deserve more than just the cursory look.

Let’s take a look at the high-major conferences that are falling short of expectations. In the Big 12, Kansas State leads Texas Tech, Kansas and Iowa State, but the leading Wildcats are just fourth among Big 12 teams in NET, ranking 29th. The issue in the Big 12 comes with teams like Texas and more specifically Oklahoma who is 16-10 but just 4-9 and yet they are still in a bubble conversation because of their strong strength of schedule numbers, 17th overall and 23rd best non-conference schedule in the nation, but again don’t you still have to win more of those games?

The same stands for teams in the Big Ten like, Ohio State, Nebraska, and Indiana, the latter two have each lost 10 conference games already, but continue to be among those teams worthy of a bid as of now. The struggles of the Pac-12 have been highly documented, as 20-5 conference leader Washington is unranked and the next best team according to the NET is Arizona State at 68th but have gone 8-6 in their last 14.

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