NCAA Basketball: Way-too-early preseason mid-major top-25 for 2019-20 season
It was a good year for NCAA Basketball mid-majors overall in 2018-19. Who are the top non-power conference teams to look for next season?
Compared to the season prior, the 2018-19 NCAA Basketball season should be considered a success for mid-majors. After having just two at-large teams making the NCAA Tournament and very few overall getting single-digit seeds, this year featured several getting their just due.
Despite losing in the WCC Tournament finals, Gonzaga still received a one seed. On the other end of the spectrum, Belmont was one of the last teams to get a bid. And in between, teams such as VCU, Nevada, Buffalo, Utah State, and Wofford were all given seeds between 6 and 9.
One disappointing factor from the 2019 NCAA Tournament was the lack of noise from the mid-majors overall. Only UC-Irvine and Liberty got Round of 64 upsets, while just the No. 1 seed Bulldogs made it to the Sweet 16. There was no Loyola-Chicago like Cinderella run this time around.
But with the season now compete, it’s time to take a quick glance at the 2019-20 campaign. There are a couple of teams that already stand out since they’ll be returning the vast majority of their players. Then there are a few who may take a major leap in their respective conferences, thanks to a few transfers who had to sit out this past season. And while many small programs will be losing their best players to the transfer or grad transfer market, these following teams for the most part will stay in tact.
Of course it’s incredibly early and the volatility of transfers could easily affect many of these mid-majors listed. But for those interested in looking at which mid-majors could make a deep run in next year’s Big Dance, here are the ones to think about.