NCAA Basketball: Why do mid-majors get less respect than power schools?

Power conferences are always going to be the main attraction for NCAA Basketball. Mid-majors are extremely important to the game and need to be given an ample amount of respect.

The 2020-2021 NCAA Basketball season will have 357 teams playing the sport at the division one level of those 357 schools who are playing basketball over 32 conferences. 75 total teams and six total conferences would be considered power teams from a power conference. Those conferences are the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac 12, and SEC. That means the remaining 282 teams can be considered a mid-major program.

These 282 teams are going to be the focus of this writing. Those teams are the teams that get little to no respect, even when they deserve to be respected. It doesn’t stem just from a lack of respect from the fans, but the lack of respect goes as far as in the media and from the NCAA. A handful of these schools have had more success in recent years than many of the power schools and yet are still criminally undervalued. The fact is that without these schools the power conference schools would have trouble scheduling. The sport needs the mid-majors like it needs the power conference schools.

If 80% of the schools playing college basketball fit into the mid-major category a few questions need to be answered. Why are these schools undervalued?  Why do these schools not get the respect they deserve?  How do the schools earn more respect?  In the paragraphs below these questions will hopefully be answered and a better understanding as to the underlying issues that each school faces on a day to day basis.