NCAA Basketball: Ranking 2019-20 mid-major over power conference upsets so far

There have been plenty of upsets so far in NCAA Basketball. Which ones involving mid-majors have been the most notable?

A lot has been made and talked about with Kentucky losing at home to Evansville as well as Duke losing on their home court to Stephen F. Austin. The Blue Devils who won at Michigan State and Virginia Tech as well as beating Kansas and Georgetown on neutral courts lost to the Lumberjacks from the Southland Conference and it still is pretty shocking that Duke lost on their home court.

The Wildcats who have not had as difficult of a non-conference schedule as the Blue Devils, still have won every other game up to this point. Kentucky’s loss at home to Purple Aces from the Missouri Valley conference was shocking as well as the Wildcats are clearly the more talented team.

Many fans of college athletics focus mostly on college football from August to December. However, other collegiate sports are in full gear by December and college basketball has had already some exciting and surprising games thus far to start the 2019-2020 season.  Unless you’re a fan of a particular team, you may not be aware of some of the upsets of power 5 schools but some lesser-known mid-major programs.  Let’s take a look at the top 35 surprising upsets that have already taken place this season list.

*Criteria of how each mid-major victory over a Power 5 school includes:

• Was the win a home, neutral, or away game
• The records of both teams
• Is the mid-major team an upper echelon or lower echelon mid-major team
• Margin of victory

#35 Richmond 93 Vanderbilt 92

#34 St. Louis 64 Boston College 54

#33 Santa Clara 70 Washington State 62

#32 Richmond 64 Boston College 44

#31 Santa Clara 71 California 52

#30 Northern Iowa 78 South Carolina 72

All of these non-power five teams are solid and well-respected but not nationally known to many NCAA Basketball fans. Santa Clara, Northern Iowa, Richmond, and St. Louis will compete for their conference titles. However, South Carolina and California for example, on paper should be able to defeat mid-major teams like Northern Iowa and Santa Clara because they are able to recruit more top-tier players.

Yet, what makes college basketball so great is that a mid-major program can develop a core group of players and as they become upperclassmen, they can defeat teams from the SEC and PAC 12.

#29 Harvard 62 Texas A&M 51

#28 Tulsa 67 Vanderbilt 58

#27 San Francisco 76 California 64

#26 Rhode Island 93 Alabama 79

#25 Yale 54 Clemson 45

#24 Western Kentucky 86 Arkansas 79

#23 Louisiana Tech 74 Mississippi State 67

#22 Loyola Chicago 78 Vanderbilt 70

#21 Bradley 73 Kansas State 60

#20 Charlotte 67 Wake Forest 65

Not many shocking upsets in the #29-20 rankings but surprisingly power 5 conference teams as listed above with fewer resources and coming from schools with smaller budgets can not only beat power 5 schools but beat them convincingly. Harvard and Tulsa didn’t need a last-second steal or a three-pointer at the buzzer to beat SEC teams Vanderbilt and Texas A&M respectively, they defeated them without last-minute heroics.

Also, unexpected is not only are some of the above mid-major teams defeating power 5 programs on neutral courts, but they are also collecting big paydays to travel to a power 5 school and beat them. Tulsa, for example, got paid to agree to play at Vanderbilt and came away with an impressive victory.

#19 Belmont 100 Boston College 85

#18 Nicholls 75 Pittsburgh 70

#17 Southern Utah 79 Nebraska 78

#16 Northern Iowa 79 Colorado 76

#15 Omaha 85 Washington State 77

#14 Pennsylvania 81 Alabama 80

#13 Merrimack 71 Northwestern 61

#12 UC Riverside 66 Nebraska 47

#11 Liberty 61 Vanderbilt 56

#10 East Tennessee State 74 LSU 63

This above group appears to be ten upsets of “football” schools losing to mid-majors. After Florida was able to win back to back national titles in basketball over a decade ago, other football powerhouses have invested time and resources into their basketball programs.

However, it is still surprising that LSU who made a run to the Sweet Sixteen in March loses to East Tennessee State by double digits. Nebraska should not get blown out a home by UC Riverside and Colorado who is a solid team this season should not be losing games to Northern Iowa even though NIU is a good mid-major team.

#9 Hofstra 88 UCLA 78

#8 Radford 67 Northwestern 56

#7 Fairfield 67 Texas A&M 62

#6 St. Bonaventure 80 Rutgers 74

#5 Boston University 78 South Carolina 70

#4 Ball State 65 Georgia Tech 47

#3 Charleston Southern 68 Missouri 60

#2 Coastal Carolina 79 Utah 57

#1 Wofford 68 North Carolina 64

There are absolutely no excuses for any of these power 5 conference schools losing to mid-major programs like the ones mentioned above. Understandably, North Carolina is not having a great season but to lose at home to Wofford after some tough early season loses is very unusual for a blue blood program like North Carolina.

The other teams mentioned may not be having a good or even decent year like Texas A&M but to lose to a team like Fairfield is an unacceptable loss. Utah is a solid PAC-12 team and they lost to Coastal Carolina by 24 points in a blow out loss for the Utes.

The other teams listed from #9 on down lost to inferior teams and if they want to make the NCAA tournament this season, they need some redeeming wins in conference play.