What is a Mid-Major?

[Turbine]

I am a little tired of the term "Mid-Major". It used to apply just to basketball but I have seen it creeping into all the other sports as well.

The "Major" schools aren't always the biggest, they aren't always the best.

The term comes from what conference you are in, yet is almost always used to describe a specific school not the conference.

What gets me most is this, now I hear it being used to describe baseball and softball teams. Now I have no way of proving this but in my book but the diamond teams of Louisiana rank in the top 25 in the nation. I say rank in the top 25 over a period of time, winning wise, attendance wise, and once Tigue Moore adds the seats on the third base side stadium wise.

The term mid major sucks, simply because it is inaccurate. I wish someone would define it or me.

[NewsCopy]

I spent a Sunday sitting next to John Kresse, a true legend in college coaching, watching Tommy Herrion conduct a practice at the College of Charleston. I sat beside a former coach who could coach with anyone who has ever roamed a sideline, watching one of the nation's brightest young coaches teach a group of talented players to fight like hell through a two-hour practice.

There is no way that what I watched could be reasonably termed a "mid-major" practice. No reasonable basketball person would ever refer to Kresse as a "mid-major" coach, or Herrion as a "mid-major" coaching talent. But that is what we all have called them, and I'm not sure it makes sense anymore.

Heading into the 2003-04 season, ESPN's Jay Bilas ranks his top 10 teams who play outside the so-called "major" conferences:

1. Gonzaga Bulldogs
2. Wichita State Shockers
3. Creighton Bluejays
4. Northern Illinois Huskies
5. C. of Charleston Cougars
6. Illinois-Chicago Flames
7. Miami (Ohio) Redhawks
8. Manhattan Jaspers
9. Bowling Green Falcons
10. Eastern Washington Eagles

Call Gonzaga a "mid-major" and Mark Few will give you an earful. Let the commissioners of the Mid-American Conference, the Horizon League and the Missouri Valley Conference hear you say "mid-major," and they will each rattle off the wins their leagues have posted over the so-called power conference teams ... a.k.a. the "majors". What these coaches and commissioners object to is that the term automatically paints their programs as inferior to the power conference schools.

I have referred to teams as "mid-majors" for years, and never really thought about the definition of the term. I treated a mid-major like the Supreme Court treated obscenity ... I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. Websites such as ESPN.com and others are just as guilty, publishing a "Mid-Major Top 10" and honoring players as "Mid-Major All-Americans".

But, with each run to the Sweet 16 by Kent State, Butler or Southern Illinois, or "mid-major" player who plays in the NBA, it's gotten tougher and tougher to add up exactly what defines a "mid-major" team. And, since we use the term so freely, we must know what it means.

So, what exactly is the definition of a "mid-major" program? Let's take a stab at the different definitions, and attempt to come up with some other more palatable expressions to use in place of such a demeaning and debasing moniker.

The rest of the story

By Jay Bilas
Special to ESPN.com

[lcitsh]

Mid-major is a term that has come about from media outlets that cater to the BCS conference schools to describe certain football but mostly basketball programs outside of the BCS conferences that consistently experience some level of success. This term only applies to Division 1-A schools in football and Division 1 in basketball. If anyone is starting to apply this term to anything other than these two sports, they are attempting to separate themselves from other programs they deem to be lesser than themselves. It's simply a prejudicial term that has no business being used within any of these programs.
To me any Division 1 program is a major program, Division II is mid-major and Division III is minor. In football 1-AA is mid-major, II is lower major and III is minor.
This is just my viewpoint. Ask anyone else and they will have their own definition of what mid-major means. Just understand it's a demeaning term used to denigrate those who are considered lesser.