While recruiting news favors the power conference programs, don’t overlook the incoming talent coming to the Mid-major Basketball teams for next season.
Thanks to television deals and the reach of the internet ‘mid-major’ basketball programs are getting more recognition than ever. The by-product is players having a greater choice to play basketball and still get national attention.
As time ticks further into the future, reputations become more instilled and may even reach the status of tradition. Thus is the plight of the so-called ‘ mid-major’ programs of NCAA basketball. Many would forgo in saying that teams that play in the Mid-American Conference and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference have the reputation of playing in a school that does not get national attention, in favor of saying they are teams that traditionally do not get national attention.
Gone are the days of players needing to play for Kentucky Basketball or North Carolina Basketball in order to have a chance to play on a nationally televised game and have your name said by Keith Jackson and Dick Vitale. Perhaps a player will not have Dick Vitale call him a ‘BTP’ or a ‘Diaper Dandy”, but thanks to the ESPN networks 29 conference championship games were set to be broadcasted.
Even among the mid-majors, there are levels and sub-categories that teams are categorized into. While the NCAA does not officially use the terms ‘ Power Conference” and ‘high major”, for strictly convenience sake, this article will be taking a deep dive into the ‘”mid-majors” and exclude the (yes I am about to say this) traditional top ten conferences. Some you might expect, but will not be included are AAC, Atlantic10 and even the Mountain West.
These recruitment classes with not be as good as Duke’s or Kentucky’s, but coaches traditionally have these players for three or four years, and can actually recruit in order to create a team For all the expectation that accompanies a five-star recruit, Dule will not be benefitting from Marvin Bagley III’s senior year, nor will Arizona have senior center DeAndre Ayton in the line-up in 2020-21.
Just for good measure, I will take these classes in their senior year over LeBron James Jr, Elijah Fisher, and Mikey Williams in 2023-24 too.